Godhood: For Dummies
by intata
Summary: Reborn as the twin brother to Peter Quill, Nathan goes his own way because, as awesome as the Marvel universe is, he wants to live his second chance to the fullest. He doesn't really have a plan, to be honest, but he knows where to start. [Rated M for language and violence. Citrus is undecided.]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

Quick note: I didn't stop my other stories. Just got sidetracked.

 **Disclaimer:** I own all of the verbs, adjectives, and conjunctions written herein. All nouns and proper nouns are owned by others. All articles, pronouns, and a few adverbs are open source, but I believe the prepositions and punctuation could use homes. Please contact your local library to see if you can help.

(I wrote this, but I own nothing, please don't sue me.)

This is mostly going to be in the MCU, though I'll be taking a bit here and there from the comics. Just picture a _sort of_ alternate MCU. I'mma call it Earth-199999.7 (If you didn't know, Earth-616 is the main Marvel universe, and Earth-199999 is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's a bazillion in between).

So I basically took the idea that Peter Quill (Starlord) was the son of a frickin _Celestial,_ and ran with it. GotG found a way to prevent him from being OP by making it so that he was only able to use his 'Celestial powers' when he was drawing them from ol' daddy Ego; but then they also made him a bit of an idiot too, meaning he wouldn't _ever try again._

I am of the belief that Peter would have been able to use some form of those powers had he spent some time trying to figure them out on his own. Granted I _also_ believe that they would be much less potent than they were when he was drawing power from daddy - Peter being half human and all. Meaning that he probably wouldn't be able to use them effectively inside a normal human lifespan.

Now if you're not aware of what a Celestial is; they're ridiculous. The first of them existed _long_ before the first iteration of the Infinity Stones, and are essentially Gods of Creation. They have powers over energy and matter manipulation that put most things to shame, and are the only beings capable of _easily_ wielding the Infinity Stones. They are _**not**_ omnipotent in any sense, though. Picture them as superpowered versions of Odin that can manipulate their own energy to physically create things on a whim. We don't actually know the full extent of their abilities.

You get it. They're powerful. So what?

Well… I did a thing.

Our story starts Sixteen years into the life of one _Nathan_ Quill; twin brother to Peter Quill, son of Meredith Quill and Ego. He is the son of a Celestial, and he knows it too, because a lifetime ago he liked to read comics and saw this one series of movies.

These are his adventures:

* * *

Nathan couldn't help it; he was too excited to keep the smile from his face. It took him eight years. _Eight years_ to work up the confidence and skill to split from the rest of the Ravagers without getting caught. He stood now on the deck of a small spacecraft, orbiting an oceanic planet in the Andromeda galaxy. The planet's name? Morag. The spacecraft's name? M'Dick.

He even painted it on the side a few nights ago, right after he stole it from some pink humanoid thing at a fuel station.

He had been tracking this particular ship for a couple months, just waiting for a chance to grab it without the Ravagers noticing. The ship was a rare find in the sector the Yondu Ravager Clan was based out of. Nathan wanted it because it was a small exploration and recon pod, specializing in mining operations. The amenities on board were common enough, save for one, and it was small enough to avoid most heavy smuggling checks. The first thing he did, though, was remove any tracking systems, which meant he had to almost completely reprogram the navigation system. It was outfitted with a hyperspace drive core, some basic storage capabilities, decent planetary scanners, small workbench with a hard-light analyzer, and most importantly; it was a submersible. As in, it would be structurally sound in the far reaches of empty space, as well as the dark depths of oceans. That last bit was the main reason he selected this ship to commandeer. Why? Well that was because of his plans regarding the planet he now orbited.

Morag. An oceanic planet with warm to moderate temperatures and an oxygen rich environment. The ball of dirt's surface was about ninety-eight percent water, with only one percent livable landmass. The last one percent was taken up by an active volcano. There was also a very popular vacation area on the planet, visited because of its consistently pleasant climate, sandy beaches, and stunning view of the solar system at night. Morag _did_ orbit an eclipsing binary star system after all.

The planet hadn't always been so waterlogged, though. Thousands of years ago, there was a thriving civilization that spanned the globe. Billions of sentient creatures going about their daily lives, none expecting one of their suns to suddenly go into an overheating cycle, melting the planetary ice caps and catastrophically flooding the entire surface. Since then, every three hundred years, the star had done, and will do, so again; evaporating so much of the oceans that a further forty-seven percent of the surface could once again be landed on. Of course you would have to wait for the atmosphere to cool enough, at which point there is a few-day-long window that can be used to explore the surface before the following heavy rains; flooding the surface once more.

Over the course of a few days, because of an unstable star, _billions_ of people died.

But they had left something behind, and right now Nathan was pretty much the only one who knew what that something was. To everyone else this place would be just a rumor for another seventeen-ish years when the sea level would lower and the temple ruins get spotted, and subsequently reported. The ex-Ravager was not; however, visiting the planet while its surface was clear. It was still quite wet down there, and was precisely why he needed a submersible ship.

" _Structure Found. Analyzing path. Warning: Intense undersea currents in area. Suggestion: Proceed with caution,"_ said the computerized voice of the navigation system.

Nathaniel's grin nearly split his face. He moved away from the observation window and sat back down in the pilot seat, kicking the ship out of orbit and making his way towards the undersea structure.

It took him about ten minutes to reach the waters directly above the structure. "Alice, start mapping the Temple and get me an overlay up front for the undersea currents."

" _Mapping in progress. Cockpit overlay display ready… Presenting water current projection."_

The glass in front of the pilot seat blinked for a second as a holographic image of blue tubes with various colored arrows appeared. The colored arrows represented the severity of the currents, where the tubes were the currents themselves. Simple stuff, really. All he had to do was avoid the 'tubes'. The sixteen-year-old was rather proud of the new software around the ship, as he had written most of it himself. When he gutted the navigation system, he was also given the opportunity to upgrade certain other features. Alice was one of them.

In Nathan's past life, he had been a bit of a cyber nut. He had gotten into programming and working with computers early on, and liked to think he was pretty decent at it. Taking classes up through a Bachelor's degree in Cyber Security and a Master's in Artificial Intelligence development, he stuck his head into that life pretty hard. He wasn't a genius by any means, but he was dedicated. The farthest he had ever officially gotten was in the creation of an intelligent, multipurpose defense software when he was in his mid thirties. For the next ten years, he and his team had continuously upgraded it until he had reached a pinnacle. What they had created was widely seen as the perfect cyber defensive net and information gathering system. No other system could compare to it, at least. It was the first true AI, after all.

Then over the course of a year and two months, his entire team started to systematically disappear. They were the only ones that knew the inner workings of the system; the only ones who might have stood a chance in blocking it for a time, or possibly recreating it.

He didn't work for the government, instead having brought his team together in their off hours, or through phone calls across the country. They had all met in certain communities online, or were professionals who attended talks and conferences. The AI wasn't a paid creation. It was a fun past-time. A hobby for everyone involved. But then it happened, and all of his friends started dying because of it. What they created was apparently 'too effective', or at least that's what the masked man said, right before he pulled the trigger.

Then he woke up as the son of Meredith Quill, a beautiful woman in her early twenties that was obsessed with _new_ music from nearly fifty years in his own past. It seemed he was the victim of some sort of time-jump rebirth, having died in the year 2024, and born again in 1980. 1981 was spent on the whole: just freaking out.

He never had much of a relationship with his parents from before, but it was impossible not to care for the ray of absolute sunshine that was Meredith Quill. He quickly grew to love the girl, as did his twin brother, Peter, who clung to her nearly every waking moment. Peter was his best friend in this life, regardless of how reckless and prideful he was. Oh they hated each other in the beginning; Peter being jealous of any attention their mother paid Nathan, and Nathan being utterly and totally annoyed at the resulting fits. That changed; however, when Meredith Quill, the happiest twenty-nine-year-old on earth, died of a brain tumor. With a smile on her face, she whispered her last 'I love you', nudging over two small presents, and asking to hold their hands. Nathan did so almost immediately, but Peter didn't. She smiled at Nathan warmly, but he could see the hurt in her eyes as she turned to Peter.

"Peter?" She had called, and the heartbeat monitor went flat.

Peter had to be dragged out of the room by their grandfather, kicking and screaming, while Nathan cried quietly, not wanting to let go of his mother. In the end, though, he allowed himself to be lead out of the room so the doctors could work. There, he found his brother bolting out of the hospital. He followed.

Then they were abducted by aliens.

Fucking insult-to-injury, right?

Anyway, after that things started to click. Names started to ring bells and events started to make sense: He was in the Marvel Universe… The Cinematic one, too, because in the comics Meredith was murdered in cold blood by an alien, and Peter wasn't abducted by Yondu at the tender age of eight.

The next eight years of their lives sucked; being the defacto grunts of the Yondu Ravager Clan, but Nathan couldn't really be happier. Growing up in the eighties, with access to _none_ of the technology he was used to, made a man who spent the majority of his existence creating an AI, _very unhappy._ That changed almost immediately when he joined the Ravagers.

He was given access to tech that far surpassed what he was used to in his previous life, and the opportunity to fiddle with it all. He started out as a basic mechanic under a man - at least he thought it was male - named J'gaar. J'gaar was outrageously fat, had purple, studded skin, and a flat face with a partial overbite. He was an alright guy most of the time, but hated answering questions, which Nathan had a lot of.

After a year or so, Nathan had finally learned enough about the technology to recreate his baby: the AI, which he named Alice in honor of being the only thing he brought with him down the rabbit hole to new life.

This immediately put him in good standing with the Ravager group, as AIs were expensive. Oh they totally existed in this universe, and were even readily available too, for the right price, but due to the nature of being intelligent, they couldn't be stolen. One had to either buy it legit, or make their own. The Ravagers were all marked criminals though, meaning no one would even consider selling them an AI.

Originally, Alice was a program that was given a directive, and went about a systematic intelligent approach to solve that directive. After completion, she would simply wait for the next order. The original program was completely objective based, but after living with the Ravagers for an extended period and gotten his hands on bits of some AI source code, he was able to add a reactive element to Alice, making her more life-like.

She wasn't complete by any means, still very much a computer with no personality, but if he could make her more self-aware, then she would be a true intelligence like she had been back in his previous life. As of now, though, she was just a multipurpose tool. It was unfortunate, really, but he couldn't recreate the AI from his old world completely. There, he had a team of people all working towards it, all knowing different aspects of the code to different extents. Here, he had himself, and a couple reference materials. Not nearly enough.

The next step in her evolution would probably come about by picking Tony Stark's brain, who already had an AI by the first Iron Man movie. That; however, happened in the later 2000's, and he joined the Ravagers in 1988. It would be a while.

Turning back to his expedition on Morag, Nathan grinned at the underwater obstacle course in front of him, having played enough video games to actually find this fun.

The Sixteen-year-old cut the engines and let the ship drop into the water with a splash, then flipped a switch on the dashboard in front of him, revving up the under-sea repulsors and eased into the throttle. Yondu always said he was a terrible flier, and that Peter was the natural with a HOTAS. Anyone who rode with Nathan was going to throw up afterwards.

So he was a little jerky with the stick, and the throttle was either at full tilt, or null. Doesn't mean he was a bad pilot. He still got where you needed in the end, without a single scratch too, and that's what matters… Well that's all that mattered to him at least.

Not to mention he was flying a _spaceship._ That part was awesome.

' _It's kind of weird that I remembered the name of this planet. Out of all the things I could have remembered from the movie, what made my mind say 'Morag! Now that's a name I'll use in the future!'? I mean I'm glad I did, but come on, brain! Remember more important things!'_ He thought as he pulled up to the entrance of the Temple.

He sat there for a second, admiring the architecture, before continuing on through a gap in the columns and further into the depths of the ruins. Soon, though, he came across a door blocking his path. He just grinned.

Hopping out of the pilot seat, he jumped toward the back of the ship to the small air-lock and quickly donned a pressure suit. The suit was just a vest and helmet, where the vest did little more than relieve pressure on his diaphragm, and the helmet did the same for his head, but with added goggles and six-hour air supply. He spared a brief moment of jealousy towards the movie version of his brother for having that magical fricken helmet. He knew his actual brother didn't have the damn thing yet, but apparel with Holographic Materialization was fucking _complicated._ Nathan had been working on trying to reverse-engineer the technology, but never got very far with it.

With Nathan's normal, boring pressure suit now on, he cleared the air-lock and opened the hatch, pulling himself into the water. From there, he swam forward and picked the rotational lock on the door. Two minutes later he was looking at what he came here for.

An orb, floating lightly within multiple plasma-mesh barriers.

He pulled out a small triangular device and laid it next to the orb's display. If he was being honest with himself, he felt like he was cheating; just taking the exact same route as the movie version of his brother, and using the exact same tools. Taking a few steps back, he activated the device and watched as the orb was sucked through each plasma-mesh barrier, landing solidly on the center of the device.

* * *

Two hours later, he had gone back to the surface, and found a place to park his ship on the planet. It took a while to find any land above the water, but he found a small island that looked big enough to park on. Having just done so, he got out of the pilot seat, grabbed the orb from the cup holder and brought it over to a small workbench.

"Alice, I'm going to need a scan of the inner mechanisms of this orb," he said, holding up the orb in front of a small blue pyramid on the workbench.

" _Scanning."_ The pyramid pulsed, and a blue, flat laser swept over the orb a few times. _"Scan complete. Object is a rotational puzzle sphere containing an unknown item."_

"Get me instructions for the puzzle."

A hologram of the orb shot up over the little pyramid. _"Step-by-step instructions displayed. Rotate right side by thirty-seven-point-two degrees."_

"Okay, this might take a while." Nathan said with a sigh.

It did take a while.

Six hours later, he was mentally exhausted, and on the last step of the puzzle. He didn't complete it yet, though. He set the puzzle down, wanting to take a nap first, and not wanting to expose the contents until he was a sufficient distance from his ship. He was too exhausted to deal with the volatile item that the orb housed. So instead, he stood and looked out the window, finding that it was deep into the night cycle of the planet, he hopped back towards the small living quarters and slept until the dual suns rose in the morning.

When he woke, Nathan hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, grabbed the orb, and went outside. As he stepped off the ship, he took a moment to just glance around, to really get a good look at his surroundings. The Island he was on couldn't have been larger than a square mile. The far side of the island had a rocky outcropping that came to a small cliff overlooking the vast oceanic planet. Directly left of that was a rocky shore covered in moss that lead in towards some low-to-the-ground vegetation. To the right of the cliff, and stretching back towards where he landed his ship, was a flat, sandy beach that stretched a couple hundred meters out.

Nodding to himself, he made his way over towards the cliff, but stopped before he left the beach. After he made sure he was at least a hundred meters from his ship, he took the orb and breathed in; slowly, worriedly, turning the last bit.

The two halves of the orb came free, somehow still in line with each other and supporting the object he knew to be inside: the Power Stone. An Infinity Stone. Something he hoped wouldn't kill him in the next five minutes.

Carefully, he placed the suspended orb halves on a rock about waist-high, so that he would be able to reach the stone without having to support the orb as well. There he paused, taking a few deep breaths, trying to psych himself up for what he was about to do.

He grinned to himself as he thought, _'I need an_ Ego _boost. Ha! It's funny because my dad's name is 'Ego''_

Pausing at the joke, he groaned. "I haven't seen Peter in a week, and already I'm making shit jokes to replace him. Gah! I'm pathetic."

He jumped up and down a couple times. His name was Nathan Quill. Abducted from his mother's deathbed at the age of eight along with his twin brother Peter. Fraternal twin. Nathan was _much_ more handsome, thank you. With his chiseled jawline, and flowing locks of auburn hair, he was more god than man. He was sure of it; he was half human, half _Celestial,_ after all.

It wasn't as if he was going into this blind, either. Ever since he realized he was in the Marvel universe, and that he was Peter's brother, he had been trying to access his Celestial side of the gene pool. After years of meditation and concentration, he finally managed to pull some of that blue energy from the center of his being. It was just a spark, though, and it knocked him out cold for the rest of the day. That was about three years ago, and since then he had practiced pulling more and more every night. However that was as far as he had ever gotten; limited to just pulling a minuscule amount of pure energy. He never had enough to use for anything, as in he could never pull enough, for _long_ enough, to practice with. But that wasn't the point. The point was that he had that power in the first place! It meant that he was truly the son of a Celestial, a being that could _easily_ hold and use the Infinity Stones.

' _Alright, confidence meter is overflowing, let's_ do _this!'_

Nathan took one last deep breath, reached forward, and wrapped his fist around the glowing purple gem.

Pain.

Immediately, a pain like none-other cascaded through every cell in his body. The Sixteen-year-old screamed, the agony too intense to realize that he could just _drop_ it. He could feel his mortal flesh crackling with purple energy from the pure _power_ coursing through him. His mind seemed to regress as well, only capable of single thought as long as the pain ruptured though his being.

And then something inside of him _pushed back._ He couldn't understand what that something was, or why it was familiar; not that he was trying to understand it in the first place. He just clung to it. A light in the darkness to beat the pain away. A _blue_ light in the darkness…

He noticed slowly, that the more he clung to the light, the more of the Stone's power seemed to be funneled into it, fanning the flames and making the Stone's direct influence lighter. So he funneled more and more power into the blue light, until finally the pain began to subside. It was still there, but not nearly as profound, allowing for the return of his mental faculties.

At which point he realized he was on _fucking fire!_

Blue, Celestial fire, and it didn't burn, so it was OK. But still. That's scary.

Nathan continued to pour the power of the stone into his core, fanning the blue flames, but then he realized just how much larger those flames were than usual.

Several _hundred_ times larger than he was used to.

He dropped the stone from his hand, allowing it to tumble into the sand below, and promptly collapsed to his knees. He took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly, darkness taking over his vision. All-in-all, that couldn't have lasted more than two minutes, but he was pretty sure he had been screaming that whole time. And now his throat felt raw, and he was tired. Too tired to move properly, and the world was getting blurry.

He was out before his head hit the sand.

When he woke up, he was laying face-down on the beach, Power Stone just inches from his nose.

Nathan scrambled up and backed away from the stone, nearly hyperventilating just from remembering the pain, but then as more memories came back to the forefront, he forced himself to calm down. He knew it wouldn't be pleasant from the get-go. Hell, he was half expecting to just _poof_ out of existence as soon as he touched it, so he couldn't really say that it didn't go well.

Taking another couple deep breaths, he sat down to meditate through the experience, and almost immediately noticed a change within himself: what had previously been a small candle of Celestial blue energy within his gut, was now a raging bonfire. The Infinity Stone had somehow jump-started his energy reserves, and he was left gaping like a fish at the result.

He tried moving the energy; like he had before, and was surprised at the ease that it came to him. He guided the energy through his arms and spread it across the skin of his hands, making them glow a soft blue with little to no strain, as opposed to what would have taken thirty minutes of concentration, and total exhaustion just the day before.

Well, he supposed it had only been a short time since he had passed out, it looked to be about noon-ish, which meant according to the night-day cycle of the planet, he had only been out for a couple hours.

While moving the energy, he quickly noticed something else: his senses seemed to expand into whatever the blue energy touched, meaning he could feel and understand the structure of his hands as if he was looking through an MRI scan. He wasn't _seeing,_ really, as this was more of a third-eye sort-of deal; seeing through the energy itself. He focused a little more, and realized that he could see _deeper;_ as if he had taken a microscope and zoomed in. He could see the cellular structure of his skin, muscle, and bone… However, he could also see something else.

"Eww! Eww, gross!" He shook his hands frantically, as if he had just stuck his hand in a jar of mystery slime. "Is that bacteria? Is _that_ what that looks like?! Eugh!"

After a few minutes of rubbing his hands in the sand, trying in vain to wipe the bacteria off, he sighed and came to terms with taking a _long, hot_ shower later. Taking a deep breath, _again_ , he forced his mind to explore with his energy some more. He could already feel a little bit of the strain, but this was the farthest he had ever gotten in his control, and he wasn't about to stop now.

In the effort to _not_ look at the disgusting micro-organisms that clung to his dermis, he picked up a small rock, and began slowly moving his energy into it.

To his third-eye, the rock looked inherently different compared to living matter; an obvious conclusion, but an important one nonetheless. It was solid mass, and in order to see anything of value, he had to 'zoom in' further. Doing so; however, started to completely _tank_ his reserves, which is why he quickly stopped. He still had plenty left in the reservoir, but he realized he would need a _lot_ more in order to do just about anything with his powers. He knew the stories of Celestials, and how they could create entire planets and solar systems out of nothing but their own energy and abilities; how they could create _life itself_ on a whim. However these were old creatures. They had eons to collect energy and get to know their abilities. Or maybe they came into being with all of those abilities set and ready to go? He had no idea, really.

He knew that after a nap, he would be back at full, or he could meditate in the sunlight if he wanted to be quick about it. Years ago, when he first began tapping into his Celestial side, he realized that in order to grow his reserves, he had to take in ambient energy; be that the heat and light radiation from a star, or he supposed, now looking at the shining gem on the ground, more esoteric sources.

He sighed, hoping that what he was about to do didn't suck as much as the first time.

He looked to his hand, flooding it with his inner blue fire; considering that was the only thing that kept him from exploding the last time around, and bent down to pick up the purple gem.

As soon as he touched it, the power started to seep into his system, though much more slowly and controlled this time. Nathan closed his eyes and concentrated on bringing his power to act as a sort-of filter between him and the stone, focusing purely on the energy that radiated from it. Learning to actually control the stone and use its powers had now come secondary to using his own, since he was apparently given the option to improve quickly. Sure, it was easily one of the few things in the universe that would make him a power to contend with, but he wasn't sure if other beings could detect its use; beings that could easily overpower him if he had just _one_ of the stones. It had been a small worry before, and still was rather small, but now that he had another option, he would explore that first. Not to mention that he wanted to become one of those powers _without_ the constant help of an Infinity Stone. He liked to think of himself as a good guy, but… well, as the saying goes, 'Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

Being born the son of a _Celestial_ did not do him any favors in this field.

Nathan stayed like that for a couple hours: constantly absorbing the energy that radiated from the stone, filtering it through his own Celestial fire, and feeding his core, only finally taking a break to sleep and eat. Speaking of eating, he had about a year's worth of dehydrated rations aboard his ship, being one of the main cargo points of the exploratory vessel so that it could survey the remote areas of the galaxy without frequent trips home. The other being fuel in the form of Hyperspace Ion Batteries. These batteries tend to require about two months to recharge, but can last up to three years of moderate use. This charging cycle was, in fact, why Nathan had so much time to plan out how he was going to steal the ship in the first place.

But back to the food: it sucked. It was bland and chalky, but it got the job done. He highly doubted that he would be on the planet for a year, but he had the stock for it if need be. Nathan really couldn't wait to eat something more appetizing, and it had only been a week since he arrived.

* * *

So there he stayed, on the mostly deserted planet, for what ended up being three months. He had set up three stages of his day during that time; the first stage was to absorb energy from the Power Stone and use it to enhance his own reserves slowly. The second was to _use_ those reserves and explore his own power, and the third was sleep. Of course he took breaks to eat as well.

During those three months, he found out four main things about his body and abilities: the first being how to move his energy to manipulate the matter it was connected to, essentially making Nathan a telekinetic. This also allowed him to change the state of matter just by exciting, or calming the molecules that were flooded with his energy. The second was how to mold his energy in its purest form to _create_ matter. This one, though, took entirely too much energy to feasibly work with at his level; meaning that the few times he tried, he was only able to make a small pebble after dumping his _entire,_ now comparatively massive, reserves into the effort. The third thing he learned came off of a combination of the previous two; he could, in essence, _alter_ matter that already existed, changing the organization of the atoms and molecules within to fit his design. This took a lot less energy than pure creation, but it came with the caveat of time. As in it took almost an entire day to change a rock the size of his fist into the same metal that coated his spaceship. Though he assumed it would get faster with practice.

That brought him to the fourth thing he had discovered. After three months, his reserves had skyrocketed from being in contact with an Infinity Stone, and he couldn't be happier with the results he had gotten. However there was an inherent issue that he hadn't foreseen: his reserves stopped growing. Or more accurately, he had filled every cell and atom of his body to the brim with his Celestial energy, and he couldn't _fit_ any more into his being. He had figured out early into the first month that there was no extra-dimensional _pool_ of energy that he was drawing from, no; the energy was being directly stored in his body; as in each atom that made up his body could hold a certain amount, and no more. Further, he also learned that he could feasibly store his energy into nearby objects as well, but it would fizzle out over a time if he turned his focus to something else. The amount of time an object held energy, as well as how _much_ energy it could hold, seemed dependent on its atomic structure. For instance, the rocks around the small island he was on were mostly volcanic granite, which were absolute shit at holding energy for more than two minutes, but a hunk the size of his fist could hold more energy than he had in his body. The metal hull of his ship, though, could hold energy for roughly two hours, and he could fill the entire hull with it to the brim, and still have half of his reserves left. That ratio still sucked, but it proved that different materials reacted differently to Celestial energy. Maybe there was some material out there that could hold a metric shit-ton of energy, and keep it for an extended period. Something to note and look for.

There was now very little he could do with his time here, seeing that he couldn't grow his reserves more. He supposed he could hunker down and actually try using the Power Stone, try to get better with using its abilities, however he was still a bit afraid to openly control the four fundamental forces of the universe. Some cosmic entity being able to detect that was a real possibility. For the past three months, he had only ever used the energy radiating from the stone, never once actually _using_ the stone itself.

He sighed, looking down at the purple gem, now held easily in his palm. He was still afraid of being hunted for it, as he wasn't nearly strong enough to protect it, and didn't trust the Power Stone alone to be able to protect _him_ if those that wanted it came for him. He could still be killed in his sleep, after all. Using the stone had been his original plan in going to Morag, but with the Power Stone's ambient energy, he received an alternative, _safer_ option to fill out his own powers instead.

So no; he wouldn't be learning to control the stone. Not yet, anyway. He closed his fist around it and looked to his ship with a grin.

"Time to blow this joint. Next stop: Earth."

* * *

A/N

Well, that's a thing. I want to make Nathan _awesome,_ but not overpowered. I realize that he now has a fricken Infinity Stone, a Celestial heritage, and loose knowledge of the future, so that idea just fucked itself out a window, but there's plenty of other characters that could give him a run for his money. Hopefully this will still be entertaining for you all.

To answer the question of, "Well what about when Ego wanted to draw energy from Peter to power his plan in the movie? Wouldn't Peter already have that energy in him? Not to mention that he obviously had a _lot._ Meaning Nathan would too, right? Why make him suck power from an Infinity Stone to get stronger?"

So about that… It's a plot hole in the movie that doesn't make sense, considering that Ego says that Peter's powers will go away once he dies. If that was the case, when he was using Peter as a battery, he would have just been drawing on his own reserves like an idiot, since that's what Peter was doing in the training bit. So to make it less confusing, I'm splitting up the energy into two bits: Life Energy, and Celestial Energy. Celestial Energy takes a lot of time and effort (Or an external power source) to build up and use - it's how Celestials use their energy to affect the world. Life energy is something that I will probably never use outside of this explanation… probably. Beings with powerful life-forces have a _lot_ of Life energy, which Ego found a way to utilize in order to complete his plan. Peter, being part Celestial, had a _lot_ of Life energy despite his human anatomy, which Ego planned to use.

There. Hope that answered someone's question.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

Intro - Part 2

Alright guys, cool it. You're freaking me out here. I only put the story up like seven hours ago and we already have six reviews and twelve favorites?

Seriously though, thanks for looking this over, and for the insightful reviews (Already! I'm used to just getting insulted off the bat. You guys are great! I mean, I've already gotten constructive criticism, and a couple ideas!).

* * *

Nathan sighed in relief as he finally came upon the Great Blue Dot: Earth. It had taken him six months to travel from the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way. There was a series of Jump Gates that he had to navigate without sparking Ravager interest, who were definitely still looking for him. He _did_ take Alice with him when he left, after all. From there it only took a week and some change to get into the Sol system. Somewhere along the trip, it had occurred to him that he had actually turned seventeen while he was on Morag, so he threw a little party when he realized; creating some colorful confetti and blasting it around the cabin of his ship with a little bit of his Celestial powers.

He also said, "Wooo" enthusiastically.

Party of the century.

Before Nathan left Morag, he returned the closed Puzzle orb back down to the shrine in case someone came looking for it. If there was nothing to find down there at all, certain parties would go nuts. Hopefully, he would return and be able to help his brother through his adventures, but until then, he would be taking the Power Stone. The stone now had a home in a small, silver metal locket that Nathan fashioned out of his Celestial energy, and hung around his neck. He would hopefully never be forced to use it, but having it readily available was just prudent.

Pulling into Earth's orbit, Nathan paused for a minute. He had options; there were a few organizations that he wouldn't mind joining up with for the moment, or he could leg-it himself; get super rich by just _making_ a bunch of resources with his Celestial energy, and build up a reserve of financial power that he could throw at problems. There were two issues with the 'leg-it' option, though. Those being that people would notice an influx of resources, people he didn't have the skill set to hide from, and the fact that he wasn't practiced enough in using his powers to be efficient with creation. He was pretty good with the telekinetic aspect, but molding and changing, or straight up _creating_ matter took entirely too long on a larger scale. Oh he could do some small-scale stuff relatively quickly, having gotten a lot of practice in the past six months of travel time, but he wouldn't be able to do much more until he learned how to protect himself better. The Ravagers taught him how to fight, but that wasn't even remotely passable against anyone of note.

As for organizations; SHIELD was an option, a Hydra infested option, but an option that would guarantee training - if based off of his powers alone, but at this point in time, they were more likely to dissect him instead. He could also fuck off to Wakanda and get a taste of their super-advanced tech, but they were unlikely to let him in at all, regardless of his intentions.

Then there were the Masters of the Mystic Arts. He really had no idea what their requirements were, but he had always bore respect for those who followed the monk lifestyle. Not to mention that they were probably the only group on earth that knew about the Infinity Stones and had protected one for millennia. He might lose his own stone to them, but if they trained him and he made sure that they knew he was on their side… well they let Strange walk around with the Time Stone around his neck, didn't they? It's not like he wanted to use the damn thing anyway, just keeping it away from Thanos would be enough, especially if he got to learn _magic!_

Welp, that was his mind made up. The possibility of learning magic was even more attractive than using the Power Stone. It's _magic!_ Come on!

Yep; off to Nepal, but there was a little bit of a conundrum.

Nathan didn't want to leave his ship just anywhere, so he ended up having to park it underwater off the north-eastern coast of India. Being a spaceship, it would have garnered a _lot_ of attention, and he wanted to avoid as much of that as possible.

Under the cover of night, he dove the ship underwater a couple miles offshore and carefully parked it on the seabed. Taking a moment, he lifted his hands from the controls and looked around the small cabin. This ship had been his home for nearly a year, and he wanted to savor the moment. Oh he would be coming back to it later, but that might not be for a bunch of years yet.

He sighed and stood up from the pilot's seat. Heading back towards the airlock, he donned a pressure suit and punched the button that opened the door out to open waters. It took him about twenty minutes to reach the coast, using his energy to propel himself through the water. When he arrived, he quickly ditched the pressure suit into a nearby trash barge, and made his way inland. By the time he wanted to use his ship again, he was expecting that he wouldn't even need a pressure suit to get back to it; hoping to have developed his abilities well enough by then. Maybe he would be able to create a constant air bubble or something.

The trip to Kathmandu took about two days from there. His first stop on the morning he landed was at a pawn shop, where he traded a little more than half a pound of conjured gold for the local currency. Due to it being 1997, the value of an ounce of gold was at a little less than 20,000 rupees. He had absolutely no idea what that was in USD, or Euro, but it allowed him to stay a night at a decent hotel, and get a taxi up to the capital of Nepal. All with about 90k left over. Of course, he had to take more than one taxi, as he had to cross the border. Doing so wasn't actually that difficult, as he could fly using his energy in the same way that he propelled himself underwater. It was much more difficult than it was in the water, extremely tiring, and he couldn't go very fast, but he hopped the fence without much difficulty.

Once in Nepal; however, he ran into a pretty annoying problem. He might have been able to remember the name of the planet Morag, and other seemingly useless pieces of information, like the fact that the Masters of the Mystic Arts were located in Kathmandu, but for the life of him he could not place the name of their sanctuary.

Tama-Kuji? No.

Karma-Gag? No.

Diggy-Vaj? Ha! No.

He knew it was hyphenated, at least. People kept looking at him weird when he would ask them about it, too. The guy following him seemed to be getting pretty pissed about it, though.

"Lemur-Pug? No?" Nathan asked one passerby, then turned to the dude's friend and asked, "Rama-Dan?"

"Okay, now you're not even trying! Ramadan's a holiday!"

Nathan turned to face the man who was following him, and now marching toward him angrily. "Huh, you speak English. No comment on the 'Lemur-Pug' bit, though? Those are animals." The man was a few inches short of six feet tall, and wore a grey set of hooded monk robes, hiding his face in the shadows of his hood.

"So you _admit_ that you were just screwing with me?!" the man sounded frustrated, lowering his hood to reveal the face of a black teenager, wearing a scowl.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Nathan commented. "Though… Care to explain why you've been following me for the past half-hour?"

The teenager looked smug for a second before visibly schooling his features. "I've been following you for quite a bit longer than that."

He might not look smug anymore, but he still _sounded_ it.

"Uh-huh. That's creepy." Nathan replied, looking very unimpressed. Nathan did only notice him a half-hour ago, he could have been following for longer. He didn't really care either way, though.

"You lead quite an interesting life." Nathan continued, "Following strangers around… wait, are you going to mug me?"

"What?! No!"

"Then the only other logical conclusion is that you know something about Pooty-Tang-"

The teen blew up. "It's _Kamar-Taj,_ you _imbecile_!"

Nathan snapped his fingers and pointed at the teen. "Right, that." He paused for a second. "You know, I'm actually kind of impressed that you knew what I was looking for even though I was just spouting nonsense."

The teen took a deep breath, obviously bringing himself back under control before responding. "It wasn't that hard, really. You are a white male in a setting that is predominantly shades of brown. You stick out like a sore thumb," He looked Nathan up and down, "especially while wearing that red leather monstrosity."

Nathan looked down at the Ravager jacket he currently wore. "I take offence to that. I like this jacket." He had been through a lot in this jacket. Not to mention how comfortable it was. He'd give the Ravagers props on that one.

The teen ignored him though. "As for how I knew what you were looking for? You've visited nearly every major shrine and temple in Kathmandu, asking random passerby about various forms of a two-part word. It was obvious." He seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, speaking more evenly now. "Kamar-Taj is not advertised. How did you hear about it?"

Nathan grinned. "I am an inter-dimensional being, born on this plane as a demigod. My original dimension had stores of knowledge that just so happened to include Kimchi-Tag-"

" _Kamar-Taj!"_

Nathan's grin just grew.

The teen took another deep breath. One would think that Nathan was annoying him if he wasn't careful. "Please do not lie to me."

"Hey, you asked." The grin left his face. "Suffice it to say, I want to learn how to protect something, and I believe Kamar-Taj is one of the few places that could help me do that."

The teen reached up a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, well it's not up to me, really. Let's go."

"Adventure!" Nathan exclaimed. "I'm Nathan, by the way."

"Karl." the teen sighed.

* * *

Kamar-Taj was absolutely beautiful. He couldn't help but stare as he was lead through the complex and up to the third floor of one of the buildings. The architecture was exquisite; reminding Nathan of a couple ancient Hindu temples he had the pleasure of seeing in his past life. There were no statues, but the columns and reliefs were expertly crafted.

Karl and Nathan had been waiting for about five minutes outside of the main room entrance. Neither had started any small-talk; Karl was trying to avoid it, and Nathan was busy admiring the overall structure of the place.

"The Ancient One will see you now." A short Indian man said softly, stepping through the doors and to the side, allowing them entrance.

Nathan turned to Karl. "Does everyone here speak English?"

Karl just huffed. "You'll find the study of languages quite common here, but as for Rahul… well he was born in Seattle."

"Ah." Nathan intoned eloquently.

The first person that Nathan saw as he walked in was a _very_ old Indian man. Nearly the spitting image of Gandhi, if Gandhi was four hundred years old. The man was sitting behind a desk reading from a papyrus scroll.

What Nathan _wanted_ to say was, 'Wow, you're really hamming up the 'Ancient One' thing, aren't you?', but he was going to at least _try_ to be respectful. Living with the Ravagers for eight years did not do his manners any favors.

Instead, he simply said, "Thank you for seeing me," to the room, and accepted a cup of tea from a bald woman in a yellow robe.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Quill." The bald woman said with a slight smile. Having known about who she was thanks to a movie, Nathan could see the little charade they were pulling; grabbing the oldest looking motherfucker in the complex, sticking him behind a desk, and judging Nathan's reaction upon the realization that he _wasn't_ the Ancient One.

Nathan blinked a few times, staring up at the woman in front of him. He hadn't told anyone his last name, and was honestly a little scared at what else she might know.

Maybe this wasn't the best place to come to after all.

The woman leaned to the side, looking past Nathan back towards the door. "Thank you Karl," then turned to the table, where the old guy was getting up and leaving, "Thank you Master Bodhi."

Both nodded and left the room, leaving Nathan alone with the Ancient One, who walked over to the table and began pouring herself a cup of tea. "So tell me, Mr. Quill, what brings you to Kamar-Taj?" She asked, adding a little honey to her cup.

Nathan dry-swallowed, noticing that he was suddenly a little parched, and took a sip from his own cup before answering. "I feel as if answering that question would be redundant. You already seem to know my name."

The woman smiled a bit more broadly, picking up a nearby book. "Ah, but just because you know the title, it doesn't mean you know the story."

"But by knowing the title, means you have access to the book. Who's to say you haven't read it?"

If it was possible, her smile grew. "Nonetheless, I'd like to hear it from you."

That sentence had done absolutely nothing to appease his worries, so he took a second to take another sip of tea.

He should have thought this out a little more. "Well alright. There's an object that I'm trying to protect, and I believe I can better protect it using knowledge that I can learn here."

"I assume you speak of the Infinity Stone hidden away in that locket around your neck?"

Nathan sighed and downed the rest of his cup. "This is good tea," he said lamely. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from the people here for very long, but having it thrown in his face almost immediately... well it kinda sucked.

"Thank you." She said with another smile. "The trick is in how you dry the leaves. Come, sit. I believe we may be here for a time." She moved out an extra chair for Nathan, getting him situated before going back behind the desk and sitting down herself.

As Nathan sat, he placed his empty cup on the nearby tray and removed the locket from around his neck, while the Ancient One watched him with interest.

"To answer your question, yes; I want to protect the stone, and am _very_ aware of the forces that would try to take it from me, and how outmatched I am."

She cocked her head. "You have an Infinity Stone. What powers could possibly stand against that?"

Nathan looked up from the locket, unimpressed. "Really? You, for one."

She chuckled. "Such confidence in my abilities. I'm flattered."

He rolled his eyes, then opened the locket, allowing the room to be cast in a deep purple light. "The Power Stone." He began. "An ingot representing control over the four fundamental forces of the universe." He tilted the locket, allowing the stone to fall into his other hand.

"No!" The Ancient One started, but before she could do anything the stone was in Nathan's grasp.

And nothing happened, outside of Karl barging into the room.

Nathan couldn't help smirking slightly. This meant that the woman didn't know _everything_ about him, otherwise she would have known how he had been pulling ambient energy from it for a while. "What?"

The woman gaped for a few seconds before regaining control. "Thank you, Karl." She said, her eyes still glued to the stone in Nathan's hand.

Karl just glanced between the other two occupants of the room before slowly leaving again, shutting the door behind him.

Another minute or so passed before either of the two said anything.

"You surprise me, Mr. Quill. Infinity stones are known to be extremely hazardous to the touch."

Nathan chuckled. "I find it comforting that you can still be surprised, but believe me, I know. The first time I picked this thing up, I nearly exploded." He shook his head, holding the stone up and rolling it between two fingers. "I've built up a resistance to it since then."

The Ancient One blinked. "One can build a… resistance to such a thing?"

"Well," Nathan made an 'Ehh' face, "No, but I have rather special circumstances."

"They must be truly special indeed." She sat back in her chair, folding her hands together in her lap. "To be able to wield an Infinity Stone directly, not having to work through a medium to access its abilities… That must be quite the incredible experience."

Nathan shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Haven't used it."

She leaned forward. "You mean to say that you've had one of the most powerful objects in the cosmos in your possession, for what I assume has been a decent time, and _haven't_ used it?"

"Nope." He said, then paused. "Or 'Yep'." He paused again and shrugged. "Whichever means I haven't used it."

The Ancient One sat back again in her chair, looking confused for a second, then impressed. Nathan wasn't about to tell her that he was simply too afraid to use it. Let her draw her own conclusions for now.

"And you simply wish to protect the stone? To be honest, I find that doubtful." Her skepticism didn't show on her face, though.

Nathan shrugged again and decided to change the subject. "How much do you actually know about me?"

She rose an eyebrow, but allowed the conversation to move with the silent caveat of returning to that topic later. "I know everything about your life up until the point you were abducted, and then again the last few days since you've been back."

Nathan nodded. "I'm guessing my arrival with the stone set off some warning alarms, then?"

It was her turn to nod. "Indeed it did. We have a barrier of sorts around Earth, and once you breached the atmosphere, we were notified via one of the objects we have here." The barrier held up by the Sanctums doesn't only shield from Dormammu, then? Nathan also had a pretty good idea what that 'object' was, as well.

"Which is when you performed an information gathering spell of some sort, correct?"

"Many, actually. One proved your intentions to be non hostile, another gave your history with the planet, and quite frankly, the others did nothing at all. Considering that most of those are catered to non-humans and extra-dimensional beings, this makes some amount of sense."

"Some amount?"

She gestured to the purple gem in Nathan's hand. "No human can hold an Infinity Stone without 'exploding', Mr. Quill." She said, referencing his earlier use of the term with finger quotes.

Nathan laughed. "I guess you have me there."

"Care to share with the class?" She mock asked with a slight smirk.

Nathan's lips twitched, then sobered. "Tell me, how many futures have you seen? Am I in any of them?"

Her smirk died, and there was a pregnant pause. "You know, as this conversation continues, I find that your presence unnerves me more and more." She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and criss-crossing her hands in front of her nose. "You come back to Earth wielding an Infinity Stone of all things, and claim to have not used it. I _do_ believe you in this case, because it is very difficult to lie within this room." A lie detector spell? Huh. "Then you park your spaceship in the Bay of Bengal and make a beeline straight for Kathmandu. You seem to understand what we do here and the threats that we fight, yet none of that information should be accessible in the deep reaches of space. And _now_ you seem to be aware that the Time Stone is held here, regardless of the Sanctum shields.

"You are an enigma, Mr. Quill." She continued. "I don't much _like_ enigmas. They tend to cause problems."

Nathan gulped. For all of his supposed bravado walking in here and talking with such a person as the _Ancient One,_ the woman sitting across the table could wipe the fucking floor with him. Power Stone or no. Still, he had a goal, and there were more efficient ways to get there than spilling the beans right now.

Nathan sat back, placing the Power Stone back into the locket, clicking it shut, and laying it on the table. "Do you have a pen and paper?" He asked.

Her eyes narrowed, but nodded. She then took out what he asked for from a drawer in the desk and slid them over.

He nodded in thanks, taking up the pen and starting to write.

"How about this," he began, "I leave as soon as we're done talking and go grab a hotel for a couple days. While you," He stopped writing, and pointed the pen at her; which in hindsight was _really_ rude, but his mind was split a couple ways here, so some slack would be appreciated. "Go look at some possible futures using the Eye of Agamatron. I imagine that you haven't done so in a while. I'll even hand over the glowy rock. The thing honestly terrifies me and you can protect it better than I can at the moment. I would like it back later, though; when I can better protect it. Now, as for _what_ my father is… I would honestly prefer to not say. He's a dick, though, and killed my mom. Stabbing him in the face would make my day." He waved the pen around in a small circle and continued to write.

"Your mother died of a brain tumor," she interjected.

He ignored her in favor of jotting a couple more words down.

At this point, he put the pen down on the piece of paper and moved the locket on top of it, then slid the whole package over to the yellow robed woman.

"As for my goals, well…" He finished, gestured to the slip of paper, and sat back in his chair.

The Ancient one sat there for a minute, just analyzing the teenager in front of her. He was remarkably well spoken for one so young, and held himself with a certain blasé attitude that probably pissed a _lot_ of people off. Even though she was a major threat to his well-being, he still lead the conversation with almost no regard to the consequences. Then he just _hands over_ his biggest bargaining chip. The only thing that made him a threat in the first place.

' _Well,'_ she thought, _'this does make him a little more trustworthy. If only slightly.'_

"You're right in assuming I haven't examined possible futures lately. In the past, I've found that events don't tend to change much the more you examine them. I have studied them profusely, though, and noted where I wanted to make changes. The last time I looked was roughly twenty years ago, and not once was your presence made known to me."

Nathan smirked. "Well, I _was_ born only seventeen years ago. Maybe something fundamental has changed?"

She studied him further. "Perhaps." There was a pregnant pause. "Very well. Come back in two day's time. I'll admit; you've intrigued me, Mr. Quill."

He gave her a tired smile and got up to leave.

Though before he could, "It's called the Eye of Agamotto, by the way. Not 'Agamatron'. The founder of the Masters of the Mystic Arts wasn't a Deceptacon"

Nathan blinked before turning around slowly. "Did you just throw a _Transformers_ joke at me?" He asked incredulously. "You did, didn't you?"

She smiled and drew a small circle on the desk with her finger, opening a portal directly under Nathan's feet, depositing him just outside Kamar-Taj's front door.

It was only then that she glanced down at the paper he had given her earlier.

 _Goals:_

 _1\. Learn magic._

 _2\. Find Dad._

 _3\. Kill Dad._

 _4\. Help keep the Earth in one piece._

 _5\. Prevent Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones._

 _6\. Profit?_

What a useless waste of paper. Also, who the hell was Thanos?

* * *

 **A/N**

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

Nathan had done exactly what he proposed.

After being so _rudely_ dropped out of the magical complex, he had huffed and dusted himself off, then started over to the nearest hotel. Surprisingly, the language barrier hadn't been much of an issue since he landed. At least not nearly as much as he had anticipated. So far, there had been plenty of people who knew how to speak English; not fluent, but enough to get basic conversation through.

Sitting on the edge of his hotel bed, he reflected a bit on his meeting with the Ancient One.

Handing over the stone was going to be inevitable, as he had guessed, so he gave into it easily rather than fight against the flow. From what he knew of the woman, she wouldn't misuse it for her own purposes. She was too old and too powerful to care overly much about it, outside of trying to keep it away from nefarious hands. Hell, he expected her to treat it the same way she did the Time Stone: use it under the circumstances that called for it, and nothing else.

Not to mention that he didn't really want to use its abilities anyway. Agamotto's shield around the planet probably kept a lot hidden, meaning he might be able to get away with it on Earth, but he didn't want to risk it when he didn't have to.

Even without the stone, his own power gave him some control over the four fundamental forces by moving his energy around to mimic telekinetic abilities. If he concentrated hard enough he could influence the makeup of _atoms_. He could create something from his energy alone! Granted that took way too much out of him to be feasible, but he could do it on small scales. He couldn't do too much of that either, as without the Power Stone, he had no way of quickly refilling his reserves. It would go from zero to full in a few days by itself, and he could meditate to bring that down to a day, if he had the incling to mediate _all day._

Point was; he could use his telekinetic abilities pretty regularly, but if he wanted to edit matter, he would have to cool it for a while afterwards.

After spending two days in a hotel and just exploring a few places in Kathmandu, he had gotten a little bored, which made him pretty excited about his return trip to Kamar-Taj. He imagined that they had an unending flood of interesting things happening there.

So it was at the agreed upon time that he returned to the temple, wearing an anxious grin. He probably should have been more scared of what the Ancient One saw in the future. He had no clue what would happen. Hell, he knew he was as corruptible as any normal person, so there was a small possibility that he would be a bad guy somewhere down the line. He never was very good at playing the renegade, though; always falling back on paragon because he felt bad. So hurting others for the hell of it was never really on the table, and he was kind of banking on that.

Well, whatever happens, happens. Worse comes to worst; they would keep the stone and Nathan would just jump back in his spaceship and abduct some cows to freak out the local farmers. He would still be able to use his own powers, regardless, which was still a major leg-up from where he had been just a year ago. He had been slowly working up his abilities for eight years, and now he was finally able to use them effectively, so forgive him for not really caring about the Power Stone. The Hype Train is fully loaded, and will be leaving the station shortly. _Magic_ was to be learned!

A few seconds after he knocked on the front door, it was opened by an older woman. She looked to be about sixty or seventy, and wore grey monk's robes with an orange sash and belt. She just nodded to Nathan and opened the door further for him to enter. She didn't move to lead him further, instead turning to sit on a bench by the door, and began to read a book.

Nathan blinked, then shrugged before making his way back towards the room where he had met with the Ancient One before. The compound wasn't all that complex, all things told, meaning he remembered the way.

When he reached the small waiting area, Rahul, the short Indian doorman, just opened the door and waved him inside. The room was decidedly more vacant than it had been two days ago, the only initial occupant being the Ancient One herself. Said old lady - who looked like she could have been thirty - glanced up at Nathan as he walked in, and nodded toward the chair across from her; indicating that he should sit.

Nathan sighed. "You know, nobody has said a single word to me since I got here today. It's a little unnerving," he said while taking the seat.

Her lips tiredly quirked upwards. "I believe that there's a lot of that feeling going around lately."

"Touché." Nathan intoned. "You've made a decision?" he asked, noticing that the locket he left with her yesterday was still on the desk.

She nodded. "I believe I have." She paused for a moment, then continued. "I read about twelve million different futures in these past two days, Mr. Quill. Tell me; in how many do you think you become a threat to the people of earth?"

Nathan blinked. "Whoa. That's a lot. Um…"

While Nathan thought at the question, the woman across from him couldn't help but notice how expressive his eyebrows were. They seemed to move like a pair of scales with his thought process, as if he was weighing his own soul on one, and his past on the other.

"Well, considering I've been a space pirate for the past eight years… Uh, maybe about a quarter of them?" He shrugged. "I don't know, I don't really see why I would turn on the planet."

The Ancient One chuckled. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. We never do see life's twists and turns until they are upon us." She sighed and looked Nathan in the eyes. "I can't seem to tell if you're being modest, or underestimating your own sense of loyalty."

"Oh _please_ let it be above a couple hundred thousand. I am not that much of a sap, am I?" Nathan interjected, a little desperately.

She straight up laughed at that. "I'm afraid you are, Mr. Quill. Out of twelve million, one-hundred-twenty-three thousand, four-hundred and eighty-six possible futures, you turn on the planet Earth exactly four-hundred and seven times." She paused, still looking him directly in the eyes. "That is three-hundred-thousandths of a percent. The chance is so close to nothing, that I had to do a recount. Twice. To put that into _further_ perspective, most of the people here have about a four or five percent chance of becoming a threat in the next thirty or so years." She looked towards the door. "Young Karl is at about thirteen percent, himself."

"That seems like a lot…" The lady would probably lose her shit if she did one for Steve Rogers. Nathan would put money on that dude being a straight arrow in every single timeline... well there was the one that he spouts 'Hail Hydra', so maybe like three where he's evil. Max.

"You'd think so, yes, but out of twelve million possibilities, there are _far_ more where these men and women are true assets to Earth. I believe the chance is worthwhile."

"And you had the inclination to put these statistics together for every student?"

"No, actually. I was just so surprised by your own number that I decided to check on some of the other apprentices. Even some of the Masters, as well."

Nathan sighed sadly, but then perked up. "Sounds _Time_ consuming, eh?" Nathan said, throwing a 'nudge' motion with his elbow in her direction.

She looked at him, unimpressed.

He pouted. "You're the one who slapped me in the face with a _Transformers_ joke two days ago. You don't get to act all high and mighty against my bad puns."

She nodded. "So long as you understand that they're bad."

"Hey!"

The Ancient One smirked, but sobered a second later. "For whatever reason, you being alive and on Earth has drastically changed the possible futures. For the better in most cases. I regret to say that I can not see everything, nor do I fully understand what I have seen, but I understand enough to know that you will be among Earth's allies, even if I turn you away today." She leaned forward. "Something to remember though; there are far-reaching consequences for any and all changes to the natural law."

Nathan threw his hands in the air. "Hey now, if the the 'Law' gets nettled, I'm not the one who did it."

She snorted, "True. We can't exactly blame you for being born."

Nathan gave a sideways frown. "I guess my only question here is; do you consider me to be too much of an unknown? There is a small chance that I will become hostile, apparently, and my presence alone seems to have screwed something up."

"Do you consider yourself to be my enemy?" she shot back.

The seventeen-year-old pouted. "I will if you keep answering my questions with more questions."

She chuckled lightly, "No, no I do not." She reached over and tapped the locket that held the Power Stone. "You'll forgive me; however, if I don't return this immediately. Not at least until you're properly trained."

Nathan's whole face lit up like the sun, completely bypassing the fact that she would return the stone at all. He was gonna learn _magic!_ "So you'll train me?"

The woman nodded. "Before we get to that; though, I'd like you to follow me downstairs." She said while getting up from her chair. "There's something I think I should show you."

Nathan blinked, getting up from his own chair. "What would that be, exactly?"

She just wagged a finger at him over her shoulder as she walked away. "Patience is a virtue."

* * *

About two or three minutes later, the pair had nearly crossed the entire compound, coming up to a set of double-doors.

"This," The Ancient One began, opening the doors, "Is the library."

Nathan took a second to admire the room once they stepped in. Immediately, the first thing that drew his attention was an ornate table in the center of the large room. At said table were three young people in monk's robes with yellow sashes, avidly studying over a large tome. Surrounding that was a maze of simple bookshelves made from a lacquered redwood of some kind, and a sporadic placement of intricately carved pillars. From the entrance, he couldn't see much more than that, though. The bookshelves were in the way.

"So…" Nathan started, "Is this a tour, or are we checking out a book?"

"I'm afraid it's neither. Though you might be able to argue a portion of the former."

He blinked, then followed her as she lead him through the bookshelves.

Not long after, they arrived at a desk where a diminutive man sat, looking over a ledger and clicking a pen repeatedly. The Ancient One just nodded to him and continued onward towards another pair of double doors. This set was far more intricate than the library doors, decorated with a giant circle that linked the two doors with four curved lines intersecting it. The other difference was that this set was wide open, giving Nathan direct line of sight into the connected room.

The next room was circular, with another three connecting doors, each intricately carved out of some type of metal and stone, and each with similar circle as the first set, though the lines intersected in different ways. Up above on the ceiling was a stone dome with a beautiful, marbled representation of the night sky, and floating in said dome, was a perfect replica of the planet, slowly turning. Directly below that, which the Ancient One walked towards, was a stone pedestal.

"I believe you're aware somehow, but _this"_ she said, gesturing to the pendant that was displayed on top of the pedestal, "is the Eye of Agamotto." She walked around and lifted the artifact from its stand, and showing it to Nathan.

"Yup." He clicked his tongue. "One of the most powerful ancient magical artifacts of all time. What about it?"

"Funny choice of words… I do expect you to tell me _how_ you received this knowledge, but that can wait for now." She slowly lowered the thick cord of the necklace over her head. "Now I didn't see every possible future; there being a near infinite number of possibilities, but I saw plenty enough to know that what I'm about to do will have a decent chance of speeding up your ability to learn while in these halls." She looked Nathan directly in the eyes, while making a shape with her hands and 'opening' it.

"Now wait a fucking minute!" Nathan started as the room started to glow with a greenish tint, originating from a now _open_ Eye of Agamotto. "Don't just open that thing out of nowhere!"

The Ancient One smiled. "Language. We teach discipline here, and such outbursts imply that you have learned little in that area."

"I was forced to be a _pirate_ for eight years! Give me a break! Also, having that thing opened and pointed at me is _fucking_ terrifying. Please stop." He said, backing away slightly.

She rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a baby and come here." She reached a hand down to the Eye, and flicked her fingers. Inside the pendant, a glowing green gem rattled and floated out in front of her hand.

Nathan stopped backing away. "Okay, now I'm just confused." The Eye couldn't do anything without the stone inside.

"In all of the futures that I've seen, there were a number where you would learn enough to open the Eye, and touch the Time Stone directly. In a few others, you manage to convince me to let you hold the Time Stone. In some of these futures this results in catastrophe, but I believe it's because all of those happen years from this moment, and you had no supervision." She took a step towards Nathan and brought the stone level with his eyes. "For whatever reason, you have the ability to hold the Power Stone, and I would hazard a guess that also holds true for the Time Stone, and all of the other Infinity Stones as well. The problem is that if we wait a few years, a chance is born that you _forget_ how to handle them." She paused. "Well, that's how I make sense of it, anyway."

Nathan scrunched his eyebrows together. "So you're saying I should directly hold the Ingot of Time itself _now,_ because I'll fuck it up later?"

"Please mind your language, Mr. Quill. Essentially yes, though you also had no one around that would be able to stop whatever catastrophe you might cause."

"I'm honestly surprised that you want me touching it at all." He blinked and looked up from the stone into her eyes. "What do you expect me to do with it, anyway?"

She nodded. "Using the stone in some futures, you manage to finagle out the ability to process things faster, condensing years of learning into months. You have the potential to do a lot of good, Mr. Quill, and with this method we might be able to consider you a _Master_ when push comes to shove."

Nathan paused for a moment. The idea hadn't occurred to him, and it sounded pretty awesome, but he remembered something Mordo said in the movie that sort of contradicted everything she was suggesting. "I thought you guys were all about protecting the 'Natural Law'. Isn't this kind-of… I don't know; doing the opposite?"

The Ancient One smirked. "The very nature of the magic we use alters the Natural Law. We _use_ the law to protect it, but in doing so, we incur debts. Some of the most powerful arts require us to draw from various extra-dimensional entities. Sometimes, just the fact that we draw on them is enough payment, as it is a form of worship; feeding their own power. Others; however, require different forms of payment else the very laws we protect turn on us. For instance, we have a rabbit farm in the Hong Kong Sanctum that we use for sacrifices." She held up a hand. "I know, it's not pretty, but it is necessary to even the balance sometimes." She turned to the stone that floated in her palm. "However there is no entity attached to the Infinity Stones. They are ingots of power that have no limit in their respective fields, though are so _easily_ over-used. If one is not careful, Time itself could cease to be." She flexed her hand, spinning the stone slightly in the air. "So in this case, 'keeping the balance' refers more to using only enough power that results in the desired effect, keeping all other effects to a minimum."

Nathan thought about it for a moment, tilting his head to the side. "So in essence, we don't protect the Natural Law from being used, we just audit those who would incur more debt than the Earth can handle, and balance the books where necessary?"

She laughed. "I've never looked at it from an _accounting_ perspective, but that would be accurate, yes. However that is just one facet of what we do, our main purpose is to protect the planet from external threats."

Nathan tilted his head with a small smile. "And people riding in on a spaceship with an Infinity stone qualifies, I'm guessing?"

"Of course." She replied. "I'm not sure if you knew this, but the stone you arrived with is more than capable of destroying the planet a million times over." She narrowed her eyes at him. "In a matter of seconds, no less."

"I was _trying_ not to think about that, thank you. Oh, and you should probably repeat all of that to Karl. I have a… _feeling_ that he takes the 'Natural Law' thing way more literally than you intended."

She 'hmm'd', looking at Nathan with a slightly confused look. "Well, moving on. I suppose I'll ask first; do you know if you can hold this?"

Nathan 'hmm'd. "Well, this stone is a bit more esoteric than the Power Stone. I understand the basics of the four fundamental forces of the universe, so it's a relatively easy thing to wrap my head around, meaning that using it _probably_ wouldn't be that difficult." He paused, leaning closer to the green gem. "Time, though, is a _much_ more complicated concept; one that we've barely begun to understand as a science. It's long since been theorized that gravity can affect the passage of time, as well as change as an object approaches the speed of light, but that's all I know about it."

The Ancient One blinked and repeated her question. "Do you know if you can hold this?"

" _Holding_ it shouldn't be a problem if it's anything like the Power Stone. _Using_ it could be a different story. There was a reason why I didn't use the Power Stone; there are beings in this universe that might be able to sense it. _We_ are protected by Agamotto's shield, so the unfiltered power of an Infinity Stone might be safe from detection as long as we're here, but it's still dangerous as all get-out."

"Well, we'll take it slow, then."

Nathan eyed the woman. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

She just smiled and shrugged. "One way to find out."

"You are not inspiring confidence," he huffed.

Her expression sobered. "In my experience, telling others the specifics of the futures I've seen never ends well, and I don't intend to repeat that mistake more than I have already done today, but suffice it to say that this is the best way to prepare you for what will occur, despite its risks."

"Are you just going to lead me through all of my decisions then?"

"Of course not. Like I said before; I don't know everything that will happen, I've only been able to see the events that I would be a part of."

He looked up at her, face blank. "Does that mean you can see farther than Strange fighting off Kaecilius, then?"

Her eye twitched. "... We're going to have a _conversation_ when we're done here, but yes. Your presence on Earth seems to have extended my own time."

The seventeen-year-old ex-pirate snorted and stared back at the glowing gem a little longer. "Alright, well fuck it, then… I guess." He blurted out, then reached to grab the stone.

As he brought his hand closer, he started to circulate his Celestial energy in the same way he used to hold the Power Stone. The concept of holding the stone itself should be similar, if not the same, between the stones, so he wasn't too worried about that part, and he was right, too. He pinched the stone between his thumb and forefinger without issue.

He breathed a sigh of relief, bringing the stone in slightly closer. "Well that's step one. What's step two?"

"That would be finding a way to alter your perception of time, or possibly altering the passage of time in a specific area. There are ways to do this if we used the Eye as a medium, but we simply don't have the time to teach you the required spells."

Nathan looked up from the stone. "Why can't you just perform them instead?"

"To do that, I would need to spend all my time with you, and I simply can't do that. I am the Sorcerer Supreme. Which means that I only have so much time to devote to my students. The masters and myself have our hands rather full in defending the planet."

"You do realize that we're talking about the _Time Stone_ here, right? If there's a way to create time to do that, it would be by using this thing." Nathan said, pointing to the gem in his hand.

"There are beings, Mr. Quill, that can transcend time's influence; that can and will attack the planet if my focus wavers. I cannot afford to commit myself to using such complex magics for extended periods, I'm sorry."

Nathan nodded slowly with a sad glint in his eyes. "Dormammu affects you that much, then? I suppose I'm stuck."

Her eyes narrowed immediately, looking guarded.

"Oh don't look at me like that. I won't tell anyone, and I know about him the same way I know about the rest of it. I wanted to talk to you about that when we're not busy, anyway." He waved his free hand dismissively. "So you want me to try and extend my _perception_ of time? Make it so I can read a book in, like, twenty minutes instead of a few days? That seems incredibly complicated."

"Yes." The robed woman said slowly, reevaluating Nathan with a long glance, then shook her head slightly. "If you're able to do that, you won't have to worry about aging at many times the normal rate, like you would if you just changed the passage of time in an area."

"Yeah, that would suck."

"Quite."

Half a minute passed before Nathan spoke again. "Alright, here goes nothing, then."

He moved the stone from between his fingers to the center of his palm and clenched his fist around it. He had never actually used the Power Stone, so figuring out _how_ to use the stone would be a little interesting. Thanos needed the gauntlet in order to harness the stone's power, and the dwarf smith had called it a 'device' in the movie, meaning that mortal beings lack the ability to use them directly. As Thanos demonstrated; however, mortals of certain races are able to physically _touch_ the stones at least.

Nathan slowly began feeding his energy into the stone, tapping the edges and encompassing it. Something he immediately noticed was that the stone wasn't giving off nearly as much energy as the Power Stone had; making it decidedly easier to hold on to. Though that seemed to change dramatically when he breached the surface of it with his own energy.

The stone began to vibrate in his hand, and sporadic spikes of the stone's ethereal essence began seeping _into_ his Celestial energy, seeming to meld with it. This started to quickly break down Nathan's defense against the stone, which ended up being what he needed to do anyway; he just didn't know it yet.

It had only been four measly seconds since he started when his defense against it cracked and shattered, prompting a giant green flash of light that emanated from Nathan's whole body. Holding something as non-definitive as the Infinity Stone of Time can make terms like 'immediately', and 'faster than he could blink' seem sort-of plebeian, but they were the only way he could describe how the Ancient One ripped the stone out of his hand. She cast a levitation spell of some sort; easily freeing it from Nathan's grip as soon as the room went green.

"Well," Nathan began, blinking the light from his eyes, "That was interesting." He paused. Something sounded off with what just came out of his mouth…

The woman took a second to also wipe the light from her eyes as well, before looking back at Nathan, Time Stone still floating above her palm. "I'm not entirely sure what you were… Huh."

"What?" Nathan asked, then blinked as he realized he was looking _up_ at the Ancient One. Well, more 'up' than before, anyway; she had always been taller than him. Then he realized his voice a lot more high pitched than it was a few minutes prior.

He looked down at his hands and noticed immediately that they were tiny and pudgy. Also his clothes were _huge,_ and didn't fit anymore _._ "You've got to be shitting me."

"Pfft!" The oldest woman on the planet just 'Pfft'd'. Nathan would remember the experience. It didn't take long for her to regain control of herself, though. "Language."

"French." Nathan replied, still looking at his hands. "Please pardon j'ai continué à parler: _What. The. FUCK?!"_

"Tu parle français?" The woman asked with a head tilt.

"Un peu." He looked up at her and deadpanned, "I'm three feet tall now. What the shit?"

She tilted her head slightly more. "I'd say more like three and a half."

Nathan growled and looked at the floating green gem. "Gimme. I'm gonna fix this."

As he reached up to grab it, the Ancient One pulled her hand up higher so he couldn't reach it. "Now wait a minute, Mr. Quill. Do you even know what you did in the first place to end up like that?"

"Not a clue. Gimme." He jumped, reaching for the stone and failing miserably, his pants falling away from his legs in the effort. It was fine though, as his jacket covered him well enough.

"You just made yourself a child, Mr. Quill. If you take the stone now to try again, how certain are you that you won't just blink out of existence?"

The literal man-child just pouted cutely, but stopped jumping for the gem. "So what, then? Will I just stay four years old?"

"Well," She paused to wave her hand, spawning a small golden glyph in the air. "You seem to be five years, two months, and three days old, now."

"Not really the point." The now-five-year-old ground out between his clenched teeth.

"I suppose so. Let's walk through it, shall we?"

Nathan huffed, but nodded.

"Alright, so what's the first thing you did? I must say I've never known of a mortal that can touch, let alone _use_ the stones directly. I'm interested."

"Well, I'll tell you the whole story later, but suffice-it-to-say, I'm not totally 'mortal'" He began, using air quotes.

"You were born on Earth to a human. Which makes you human, aka: mortal"

"Or we can do this now, I guess." He sighed. " _Mostly_ human, yes. Pops is a Celestial."

The Ancient One blinked.

Then blinked again.

"I'm sorry, would you mind repeating that? I'm afraid I misheard you."

"Ce-le-stee-al." Nathan sounded it out, counting the syllables on his tiny fingers, then held up his hand with a beaming smile as if he was proud that he could count to four.

She just stared down at him for a moment.

"Oh come on, you've dealt with weirder shit," he dropped his hand dismissively and rolled his eyes.

The Ancient One noted that those words coming out of a five-year-old were completely comical, but didn't let it show on her face.

"I have encountered Celestials only once before, Mr. Quill. I had been traveling the dimensions in my youth, trying to further my own knowledge of the Mystic Arts, when I came across a battleground on a scale beyond anything conceivable. Solar systems of wrent space and fractured suns. Planets that popped into existence, only to rupture or decay in seconds. It was the most terrifying and awe-inspiring sight I have ever witnessed, but that was just the battle _field_ ; the battle itself was something else entirely.

"When I first saw the beings that clashed there, the planet I stood on cracked in half from the first blow. Nearly as large as the planets themselves, those armored titans unleashed horrors of power that should not be possible within _any_ reality. They did not simply throw fireballs when they could throw suns instead. Supermassive black holes were nothing more than a distraction or minor inconvenience when the true weapons were capable of dispersing _galaxies_ into naught but empty space. I barely escaped with my life, and I hadn't even been there for a full minute." She paused, staring Nathan directly in the eyes. "It wasn't until two years later when I discovered that these beings were not only known and feared throughout the _multiverse,_ but that they were the closest things to true gods that I would ever encounter.

"My point, Mr. Quill, is that yes, I have dealt with stranger things, but nothing will ever fill me with more dread than the possibility of facing down a _single_ Celestial."

"... And they number 'as many as the stars themselves'." Nathan murmured.

The Ancient One felt like he was quoting something or someone, but left the man-child to ponder for a moment before he spoke again.

"I could tell you a lot about the Celestials, most of it would be theories, but it could put them into perspective. For example; Dormammu could be considered a type of Celestial, though his abilities differ, and he seems to be inherently linked to his own dimension, they're about equal in 'danger level'." He paused, just now realizing how ridiculous he must sound, spouting all this out while looking like a toddler. "We can talk about that later though, what we _were_ talking about is what I can do. One thing I want to do while learning here is to explore how my own abilities affect the use of Magic; we can both learn something."

The woman nodded slowly. "Right you are. Then back to my first question: what was the first thing you did with the stone?"

Nathan nodded back. "Well, the reason why I started out with my heritage is that I have access to a certain type of energy that lets me do a lot of cool stuff, like create a barrier between the stone and I, so I don't explode." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "There seems to be two levels of interface with the stones. For instance, with the Power Stone, the energy output is ridiculous if you touch it directly, so just protecting myself from it is a bit difficult, but I can use the energy coming off of it as a sort of fuel reserve to charge my own energy. That's the only thing I've used the stone for since I got it, by the way.

"The second level is what I just tried with the Time Stone and _didn't_ try with the Power Stone. I sort-of sunk my power into it to see what would happen." He paused, looking down at his hands. "The Time Stone is a bit different from the other one though. It was much easier to shield myself from its power output. I bet any normal person could actually hold it safely for a couple seconds, where the Power Stone will just blow you up instantly. What _actually_ happened when I went into the stone, was that the energy started fluctuating madly and started to… Oh holy shit."

"What is it?" The yellow robed woman asked, looking more alert.

Nathan continued to look at his hands as he slowly brought out a bit of his Celestial energy, which he now had a lot less of due to his body shrinking. He'd worry about that later. "When I touched the energy in the Time Stone, it started to do something a little strange." With that, he brought his energy out fully around his hands, but instead of the blue glow that it usually held, there was a distinctly green tint to it now.

Nathan looked up at the Ancient One. "This is supposed to be blue."

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Edit: 3/4/2019** \- _The fact that Nathan is now 5 years old, is not a nerf: It will have no effect on his abilities. It's explained further in the Author's Notes of_ _chapter 5 and 6. I'm tired of people bitching about it, and just assuming (wrongly) that I'm trying to arbitrarily limit his power, hence this edit. If you were about to bitch about it in a review and rage-quit the story, be aware that you have a problem of jumping to conclusions, and you're going to have a lot of trouble finding a good boyfriend. Oh, you're a dude, mister hypothetical reader? Like I said: boyfriend. It's 2019. If you want to act like a total bitch, that's how I'm going to treat you.  
/Rant  
_

Not much really happened in this one, but hopefully it was still entertaining. We'll get into actually learning magic in the next one.

I am totally making up everything regarding how Celestial energy is supposed to work. I'm trying to stay as close to the comics and movies as possible though. I've watched Guardians Two over 50 times just trying to figure out what I could do with it. It's only gonna get more funky from here, but it's really the only way I see it as plausible. Trying to work out the science of a comic book is hard.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**

This took a while. Next one will probably take longer. Sorry.

To reiterate; I do not own Marvel.

* * *

"Blue?"

"Blue."

"Then why is it green?"

"The Time Stone is green."

The Ancient One just stared down at the five-year-old.

"What?" Nathan asked, as if it should have been obvious.

"That's entirely asinine." She deadpanned.

"The universe is entirely asinine. I live by the 'KISS' principle: Keep it simple, stupid." He shrugged. "It hasn't failed me yet."

The woman quirked an eyebrow, glancing down at the _five-year-old_.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Rub it in." He rubbed his tiny temples and mumbled, "I wish my brother was here. He'd have to deal with this crap too."

"There's another one of you?"

Nathan looked up and blinked. "I thought you did a background check?"

"I did…" She looked sort-of peeved. "Or rather, _we_ did. It seems Master Yun is developing dementia." She sighed and looked back down at Nathan. "So there is another half-human, half-Celestial out there somewhere?"

"Yep." The five-year-old said, popping the 'p'. "Though for all intents and purposes he's just a normal human. Great with a gun, good guy to have your back in a fight, and an amazing pilot, but still just a normal dude."

"So he didn't get the Celestial genes?" She asked.

"Oh no. He totally did. He's just an idiot and never listened to me. Said I was 'letting the aliens get to me,' and 'you're not special, _I'm_ special. Learn how to pilot first, space cadet.'" He said with air quotes. "He's such a prick."

"Not a fan of your brother then?" She cocked her head to the side.

Nathan laughed. "No, he's still family. I'd do anything for him, but Christ on a cracker, he's dense as a brick."

"So why isn't he here with you?"

The five-year-old tried to roll up the sleeves of his oversized jacket, only to fail and just ended up flailing them around with a pout. "I told him I was leaving and asked him to come with me." Nathan shrugged. "Fucker thought I was kidding, got drunk, and told our pirate captain." He huffed. "I'd been planning everything for like half a year, and Pete just goes and spills the beans immediately. So I got pissed and left that night, which was good, since the Ravagers didn't want me to leave." He paused for a second. "I may or may not have thrown all his clothes out the airlock before I left."

She snorted.

Nathan smiled slightly in response. "Well anyway, the fact that my inner firefly is now _green_ makes me think a few things." He turned around and started walking back into the library, the edges of the now comparatively giant Ravager jacket dragging on the ground, and the Ancient One only a couple steps behind him; Time Stone still floating above her palm.

Getting to the diminutive man's desk and ignoring the man himself, he spotted an apple on the desk which he quickly snapped up, then turned back to the woman behind him.

"If this works, then I have a few ideas on what to do from here, and a theory as to why I'm now _five."_ He said, spitting out the last word.

He sat down and took a bite out of the apple, remembering the scene where Dr. Strange fucked with the life cycle of a similar fruit. Setting the thing down in front of him, he brought his inner fire out to the palm of his hand, closed his eyes, and slowly laid his palm on the apple.

After only a few seconds of concentrating through the senses of his energy, he could feel something… _slipping_ , for lack of a better term, and tried to steer that sensation.

Opening his eyes after only a couple of minutes, he smiled down at the object in his hands, then held out the now _unbitten_ apple to the Sorcerer Supreme.

Eyes wide, the yellow-garbed woman examined the fruit. "You managed to exert control over time without actually using the Stone."

"Yes and no." He responded without looking up from the apple. "My energy seems to be able to merge with the Stone's." He paused. "Well now I think I know how to use the Stones… Or at least have a working theory. Since the energy merges with my own, I can then direct it and use it as if using the Stone itself. Basically, instead of using a normal medium for it, like the Eye, I'm using my own energy."

They both slipped into silence as he lit up his hand in a green fire, only to watch the color slowly bleed back to blue. "And it appears the effect isn't permanent. This is the normal color."

"Maybe." The Ancient One said. "Try the apple again."

Nathan scrunched his eyebrows, but nodded, turning back to the apple. This time; however, when he sunk his energy into the fruit, he only got the normal 'sixth sense' on its celular makeup without any hint of that 'slipping' sensation.

Retracting his hand, he looked back to the woman in front of him and shook his head.

She shrugged. "Worth a shot."

Nathan chuckled.

"So what was this theory about your current age?" She continued after a moment.

He nodded. "Well I think that came from not knowing what the hell I was doing. I kept trying to protect myself from the Stone even as the energy was seeping into my own. Meaning that my blue stuff was in constant contact with the green stuff until it flooded my system, which after a while, murdered my control over it and let it do something weird. It _is_ an Infinity Stone. They're all partially sentient according to one theory, and are much more powerful than any mortal being."

"You are part Celestial." She deadpanned.

"Well yes, but I don't think even a true Celestial can be counted as _im_ mortal. Sure they can live forever and they're essentially gods, but you can still kill them, albet with difficulty. I'll need to study up on my cosmic deity list, but there are a _lot_ of 'immortal' beings that can reside in this universe at any given time, and most of those can still be killed off, merged with, replaced, or repelled if you use massive amounts of bullshit. Only one of them can't really be affected in any way."

She gave him a calculating look. "As reassuring as a Celestial's apparent _mortality_ is, and how _discouraging_ the rest of what you just said is, I don't think I see your point."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about my deity list. Those guys are pretty benevolent for the most part. My _point_ , though, is that while I might be able to exact some control over the damn thing, if I'm not careful, it'll control _me._ "

She didn't look exactly pleased with that revelation, looking back at the green gem that floated in her palm. "How dangerous would you say continued use of it would be, then?"

"Honestly? Not very. As long as I back out before it overwhelms me, the fabric of Time should be safe."

Her expression turned disgruntled at his word choice. "So do you think you can revert your age, then? I'm not personally skilled enough with the eye to do it for you. My master would have been able, but I never could get a hold of the more difficult aspects of it."

"No? Well, I fucking hope I can, but that might take a while. I would need to know exactly how it happened in the first place. I somehow kept my own mind even as my body reverted back. Not to mention it took a _lot_ of energy to change that apple; energy that I currently don't have at my disposal due to said apple. I would need a lot more to mess with my own body."

"How long before you recover the amount needed, then?"

"Unfortunately it's not really that simple. Celestial energy is a little weird. I can fill my body to the brim, and have enough to work with on a daily basis for semi-normal use, but my body is the container. I can only store so much, and now that I'm _tiny,_ I can't store as much as I could an hour ago."

The Ancient One frowned. "So you're stuck as a child, then."

"Not necessarily. I've found that certain materials can store my energy for varying periods of time, meaning that if I find something that can store a _lot_ of energy, for long enough, I can continuously build on my energy base, regardless of the state of my body."

The Ancient One regarded the child in front of her for a moment, then as if deciding something important, looked down to her left hand and removed a dull golden ring, which she tossed over to Nathan. "Try that."

Nathan, a bit surprised, but otherwise curious, examined the ring for a moment. "Gold? No..." Suitably intrigued, he did as was instructed and poured the remainder of his Celestial energy into the ring.

Surprisingly, the ring took all of it without issue, and seemed to glow in anticipation for more. Though best of all, even after ten minutes or so, it had no sign of releasing even a smidgen of the energy.

"Uhh…" He began eloquently. "What is this, exactly?"

The Ancient One smirked slightly. "I take it the material works well, then?"

He nodded. "So far, at least. Need more experimentation." He slowly pulled a fraction of the energy back into himself, and found only a slight difficulty in doing so. Overall, he was pretty pleased with the material in the mere minutes that he had his hands on it.

She nodded back. "The ring is yours then. It isn't enchanted with anything, but it is made of a rather special alloy. I have been using it to store small amounts of Eldritch energies for years, but I can get another."

"What's it made of? It's too dull to be gold, and it's got a more orange tinge…"

The Ancient One smiled slyly. "I think Kamar-Taj is the last place on earth that knows how to produce it. Most of our enchanted items have a little bit of it in their makeup, or are made of it entirely. It's mostly an alloy of copper, with a bit of gold and a few other minerals. The Greeks were one of the first to mine and use it." She picked at a bead on a bracelet that she wore, which Nathan noticed was made of the same metal. "Used to call it 'Mountain Copper', but the fabrication process for the alloy was widely lost once Atlantis sank beneath the ocean; some twenty thousand years ago. Even then, we know they called it something else, and used another special mineral in their process that we don't know the nature of. This is the lesser Greek version." She finished, motioning towards the ring in Nathan's palm.

He stared at her blankly, words having some trouble forming in his mouth. "Y-you mean to say that this is _Oricalcum?!_ "

A hint of mischief played across her eyes.

"What the absolute _fuck_?!"

"Language, Mr. Quill."

* * *

After talking about it with the Ancient One a little more. Nathan decided that he would _stay_ at his current age, and just naturally go back through the stages of life even if he could figure out a way to get back to normal. For one, he could never be sure if what he might do would mess with his mind, and second; it would require a lot more time and resources than they wanted to put towards it to actually figure out how _the fuck to do it_ without aging certain parts separately or at different rates. He definitely didn't have the control to do that correctly _._ He was just pissed that he would be going through puberty for the _third fucking time._

"Um… Excuse me, but what happened to Nathan? And who's the kid?" Karl asked when they came out of the library.

' _Was he just following us around?'_ The thought barely passed through Nathan's mind before he turned and pouted, "She turned me into a five-year-old."

Karl blinked.

The old-but-not-old lady smiled sweetly, completely nonplussed at the accusation.

"What?" Was his intelligent response.

When in doubt, blame your situation on someone else, right? He was still _half_ human, afterall.

"...Nathan?"

"That's my name."

Karl was hilariously confused. "Uh… Why?"

Nathan smirked. "Well when I was born, I was the second twin that popped out. My mom decided to name the first twin 'Peter', and the second 'Nathan'. So voila! My name's Nathan."

Karl's eye twitched. "No, you insufferable idiot; why are you _five?_ "

"This is what happens when you piss her off and she just so happens to be within five feet of the Eye of Aga-whatsit." Nathan pointed at the Sorcerer Supreme, who was still smiling sweetly, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

He gaped like a fish. "But… but what about the Natural Law?"

"It is quite undisturbed, Karl." The woman responded, unbothered.

"How could that possibly be?" The teenager stuttered out. "You messed with _Time!_ "

"The Natural Law is not set in stone, Karl." The woman glanced down at Nathan, remembering his earlier warning about Karl taking her lessons a bit too literally. "They are a set of guidelines I, and those before me, made up to prevent our disciples from biting off more than they could chew."

Still looking at Nathan, she turned to face the teenage wizard and continued. "Nathan and I were speaking of this topic earlier, actually, and it seems I should hold a lecture on the subject. I fear much has been misinterpreted." She noticed the constipated look on his face. "To ease your conscience, my own master was particularly skilled in Time manipulation. He was known to simply age his enemies out of existence, and never once experienced any backlash. I, myself, have only circumferential knowledge on the subject and therefore avoid tampering with it unless necessary. _That,_ Karl, is the basis of the 'Natural Law': If you are not aware of the consequences of what you're doing, or perhaps feel that you can subvert them, you are bound to fail. Magic always has a price, but so long as you are prepared to _pay_ that price, there is nothing to worry about."

Letting that wash over him, The Ancient One waited.

"Then why insist on certain practices being forbidden? Why tell us that something is too dangerous if we can simply prepare for it correctly?" Was his response, finally.

"Not every practice has known consequences, child." Karl flinched slightly, but didn't otherwise object to the term, even though there was an _actual_ child in the immediate vicinity, regardless of his true age. Nathan caught the meaning behind it as well; basically claiming that he still had much to learn.

"You may think you know them;" The Ancient One continued, "through your own studies and the work of others, but I have seen many attempt such magic, suitably prepared, only to be struck down by the very power they call for. Or perhaps they go slowly insane, or get bodily taken over by some extra-dimensional entity. Then there are the practices with _known_ consequences, but require a strength of mind that most simply do not possess, or the preparations are morally reprehensible. In which case, is it not better to refrain from allowing such a skill? Even to those who _may_ be able to use it? Afterall, one misstep could cost their life, or worse."

Karl looked down at the floor, with a look on his face that suggested he was rethinking his whole outlook on life. Then, after a moment, looked back up. "Forgive me, Master, but I still don't see how _Time_ manipulation wouldn't send waves of unknown variables. It is simply too complex to use under any conceivable circumstance, and you even admitted that your understanding of the subject is lacking."

"Well that's the beauty of an Infinity Stone, isn't it?" The five-year-old spoke up.

Karl's attention whipped down to him. "And what could _you_ know of them? You've been here in these halls for less than five hours total, and haven't even _begun_ to learn!"

Karl had never been informed on _why_ he had been sent to collect Nathan, so the fact that he came to Earth in the possession of one of the six Stones was still unknown to him.

"Believe it or not," The Ancient One began, getting Karl's attention again, " _Young_ Nathan, here, is something of an expert on the topic."

Nathan held back a twitch. "Well, I wouldn't say ' _expert'._ "

"Nonsense; you were able to teach _me_ a couple things in the past thirty minutes."

"Mostly conjecture and theories-"

"Which is more than what we had before, Mr. Quill."

Nathan sighed, turning his attention back to Karl. "Well, to put it simply, there is a theory where the six Infinity Stones have a sort-of consciousness to them. In fact, I'm almost positive that two of the six have nearly fully developed 'minds' of their own." He said with air-quotes. "I haven't been able to confirm that, yet, but there is a reason why the 'Mind' Stone is called as such, and the Soul stone has long been held above the other five in a special place of its own. _My_ theory is that it has a fully developed emotional system, if not a personality."

"Fascinating," apparently Karl didn't appreciate the fact that a five-year-old was schooling him, "but that has little to do with the fact that Time shouldn't be messed around with."

"I was getting to that." The five-year-old resumed. "An Infinity Stone is one of the few tools in the universe that can be used exactly as it is intended. As long as the user understands exactly what they want to happen, so will the Stone."

"Because of the sentience that you mentioned?" The Sorcerer Supreme asked.

"Well the 'sentience' is a theory to explain the phenomenon. There's another theory that the Stones simply link with the user's intent so it can enact their will exactly. Those are the only two I'm aware of, but the only reason why I support the former is because I don't see how the latter could be possible without _understanding_ the user's intent in the first place."

The Ancient One just nodded, while Karl blinked about twenty times, looking between the two.

"So basically," began Nathan, "As long as you don't overuse an Infinity Stone, there are no consequences; especially since we're guarded by the Sanctum shields."

"We are currently performing a few tests on the subject, Karl." The Ancient one cut in. "We are heading up to my meditation rooms if you need me."

Karl nodded numbly, clearly confused with the turn of events, and just standing there as the two walked away.

* * *

It took Nathan three weeks to finally figure out how to use the Time Stone to change around his perception. It was a complicated mess of a project, but with the constant help of The Ancient One, they were able to bounce ideas around until they settled on a solution. The actual 'ideas' portion only really took up the first couple days, the rest was just working out the kinks and Nathan trying to explain how each sensation _felt_ as he worked through them.

One of the first ideas they went through was just speeding up time in a general area; that way, Nathan would be able to age back to his original seventeen year-old self, while still getting that extended time frame that he was going after. However it came with the need for sustenance. With the perception change, he basically ended up with a twelve-to-one time fluctuation. In other words, one month equated to one year. It wasn't exactly that, but it was pretty close. The problem with using that fluctuation on his whole body meant that he would have to eat thirty-six meals a day. However magical Kamar-Taj was, that just wasn't efficient. People at the temple barely ate more than a bowl of rice and a few vegetables per meal.

There _were_ ways to magically get food, but for the most part it wasn't very nutritious, so the economical option of perception altering was much more feasible than adding the equivalent of twelve new students to the roster. Not to mention his body would deteriorate under the area-of-effect option. He would be spending a ridiculous amount of time just reading books under the effect, meaning that there would be little opportunity to exercise, and any training partners he took would be aging at the same rate as him.

Nobody wanted that.

Oh, and there was the little, tiny fact that any AOE time fuckery would use a metric fuck ton of his own energy.

Honestly that was the worst drawback of his abilities. He could only use the Stone directly for as long as his energy lasted. If he used some other medium for the thing, he would be using the Stone's own energy to power the changes. Much more efficient that way, but he had so much more control while using his energy as the medium. Maybe in the future, he would be able to draw energy from the Stones _as_ he used them, equaling it all out, but at the moment that wasn't feasible.

As for his Celestial energy storage problem, after spending some time studying the makeup of his new Oricalcum ring, he could now use his energy to create a few more. Each ring held about nine or ten times as much energy as his seventeen-year-old body could, and it took about that same amount of energy to create another ring from scratch, then about four-to-five hours to fill the ring up using the residual energy of the Time Stone. He currently only had four of them, which he left on the index and ring fingers of each hand. He didn't really need more at the moment, already having access to over forty times the amount of energy than before. Not to mention he was having a bit of trouble controlling that much. The rings basically made it so that he didn't _have_ to control it all, being a relatively good container, but even these containers had holes in them - however small. Meaning he had to periodically swivel his sixth sense through them to keep the leaking to a minimum.

Through his entire time at Kamar-Taj so far, the Time Stone was fully in his possession, so by using the residual energy of the Stone, he could keep his own reserves at an acceptable level even while altering his perception constantly. He spent an ungodly amount of time in the library, guarded by the Librarian and the other students, so it seemed there was little to fear of him stealing the damn thing, or using it in an untoward manner.

The Librarian was kind of scary.

The Ancient One personally telling him to hold onto it whenever he was in the library probably helped a bit on that front, too.

As for the actual altering of his perception, he had to use the capabilities of his own energy to directly target the firing synapses in his brain, as well as his eyes in particular, as they had to move around faster to match with the incoming stream of information, then steering the 'slipping' sensation of the Stone's energies to speed up the flow of time like he had done on the apple. If he hadn't targeted his eyes, he would experience the hell of staring at one spot for seemingly _hours_ at a time as his mind sped up to take in everything, even though only seconds would pass.

One would think that targeting all of the synapses of his brain would be far beyond his abilities at this point, but if he 'zoomed out', and just targeted the area of effect, it seemed to work. No doubt it would be more effective if he could target each individual connection directly, but at his current level, the effect was still substantial. As he was now, he could read a book as fast as he could turn the pages. Of course his hands were unaffected, so he found himself turning those pages with _agonizing_ slowness, often starting to turn the page as soon as he began reading it.

Of course, doing all of this also came with the drawback of aging his brain and eyes many times the normal rate. His brain was actually pretty easy to target, as well. Meaning that he wouldn't run the risk of aging other parts of his body unneededly. As for what he _was_ aging, he could sort-of counteract that by periodically strengthening the squishy bits by flooding them completely with his own energy, untainted by the green stuff; enhancing the cellular life expectancy. It wasn't a complete solution, but it would do for the time-being.

That was something else he had learned about himself. His Celestial fire could enhance biological processes and strength simply by being present in individual cells. The effect was miniscule without proper direction, but a deep paper cut could be healed in a few hours, rather than a day or two with its help.

He would have to study biology at some point to get better at actually healing himself. That would be a pain in the ass. The workings of the human body were ridiculously complicated.

In the following few months, using his new trick - nearly four full years in his mind - he had taken to simply learning languages, both living and dead. Latin, Greek, Sumerian Cuneiform, Hindi, German, etcetera etcetera. He even put some time into Xhosa, the primary language of Wakanda. Speaking any of them was a bit of a problem, but he could read them all just fine.

This allowed him to actually _read_ a lot of the ancient texts within the library. Of course, though, the librarian was the one recommending his reading list, and by 'recommending', he meant that the diminutive man took _no_ shit despite his appearance, and force-fed him said list; outright refusing deviation from it until he had a sufficient level of 'base knowledge'.

As it turns out, most of the students at Kamar-Taj wouldn't begin learning how to utilize the basics of magic until the Librarian was done with them. This process would usually take around a year, depending on the person, however Nathan apparently had a special place in the man's heart. He had been utterly _ruthless_ in insisting on a higher level for Nathan before he even began. Most only learned one or two languages and read through the first few tomes of introductory information before their first practical lessons, but Nathan had been forced to learn _eleven_ languages outside of the two that he already knew; English and French, and have a comprehensive knowledge of the theories and studies done in three separate fields of magic. By no means was he expected to know how to perform any of them, just know about them.

Surprisingly, he was able to pick which three he wanted to study - from a list provided by the Librarian, but still; he was offered a choice. He was starting to think he _impressed_ the man or something.

He chose Dao Weaponry, Eldritch Enchanting, and Mental Defense.

The first two were more on the 'advanced' end of the spectrum, but he had the time to dive into them fully, using his little trick with the Stone, so they weren't much of a hassle regardless of how difficult their concepts were. Mental Defense, though, was one of those 'all-encompassing' fields. Meaning that it had levels of difficulty ranging from beginner to bullshit.

There were a few different mindsets for the practice, but the one that clicked with him was along the lines of Sherlock Holmes' Mind Palace. The book on the subject was written by an ancient Roman sorcerer who's name had been lost to time. The book itself had been thought lost as well, apparently, though _'The Method of Loci'_ was referenced in major academic resources all over the place. Even Cicero, one of the most famous Roman writers of all time spoke of it, even though he couldn't use the magical aspects of it.

' _The Method of Loci'_ was a rather short collection of scrolls, rather than what we usually recognize as a 'book'. It was about the equivalent of a fifty page novel, but covered concepts that went _way_ over Nathan's head. Still, he was able to utilize the basic meditation practices, as well as the more mundane art of organizing his memory. The defensive aspects of the craft were all magical in nature, and he couldn't even begin to start on them with his current level of ability, however outside of the _defensive_ abilities, there was one magical concept in _'The Method of Loci'_ that he could already use: powered by his Celestial Energy instead of Chi, he could easily sort desired memories and information for quick retrieval - essentially granting a minor eidetic memory.

Chi was an interesting energy that was called for in many uses of the Mystical Arts, but it required _many, many_ years to develop. It was characterized by strength of mind and body, and when utilized correctly, could enhance nearly any other type of magical force, or be used on its own to devastating effect. _'The Method of Loci',_ in the very first scroll that mentioned the magical properties of the art, described how one could gain a further control of their mindscape through the use of Chi, giving everything more weight and form in their mind. Apparently most practitioners of the Mystic Arts weren't able to use anything past the mundane version of ' _The Method of Loci'_ due to the Chi requirements. Evidently Chi was one of the most advanced aspects of magic taught at Kamar-Taj. Only the Masters had any control over it.

This didn't help Nathan either, as he was currently in the body of a five-year-old, meaning that he _had_ no strength of body, regardless of the strength of his mind. Chi required both. So instead, he looked into using what he already had: Celestial energy.

Nathan was happy to find that it made a suitable replacement, even though it didn't seem to be as effective as the scroll said Chi was. In fact, Nathan was starting to suspect that he didn't have _any_ Chi, and would probably never have it. The method to access Chi was remarkably similar to how he accessecd his Celestial energy, meaning any Chi he might have had was probably overridden. Even if that was the case, Nathan wasn't too upset. His blue fire was _way_ cooler than Chi ever could be.

Well, with all that figured out, an enhanced memory did _wonders_ for learning all of those languages. Even with those functional four years that he had, without his mental library, he would _not_ have been able to learn even four languages effectively. With the library, he could get all eleven to a passable level.

It took him two full days of Time Stone augmented meditation to create his own organized inner world, which at the moment was just a Greek temple-themed library.

Simple as it was, it worked, and he couldn't be happier with the results.

So there he was, four months into his stay at Kamar-Taj, having learned more than he ever dreamed possible in such a short amount of time, and standing in front of the door to The Ancient One's study. He was told by the Librarian that he was ready for more _practical_ lessons just twenty minutes prior, and then was promptly handed an introductory book on Arabic.

The prick.

After his daily return of the Time Stone to the Eye's pedestal, he was told that the Ancient One wanted to see him, so he made his way through the corridors to her study.

The current doorman on rotation, now a rather stocky German man named Richard, simply waved him through to their leader's study.

Once inside, he bowed respectfully to the woman behind the desk. "Master, you wished to see me?" Four months in this place - about four _years_ in his mind - really beat into his head just how much the Sorcerer Supreme and nearly everyone else in this lifestyle _deserved_ respect.

Magic was fucking _hard._

"Ah, Nathan." She said, looking up from what appeared to be an Egyptian papyri scroll, and gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk. "Sit, please. I was told that you had finished all that Master Haman had assigned you, correct?"

"Master Haman?" Nathan responded with a raised eyebrow, taking the offered seat.

The woman's mouth twitched upwards. "The Librarian."

"Ah." Nathan blinked, just realizing that he never learned the man's name, then shrugged. "Well he _did_ just give me this, but otherwise, it seems so." He removed the book on introductory Arabic from the crook of his arm and showed it to her.

Nathan had the distinct feeling that the woman in front of him was fighting a smile.

"Master Haman gives me regular reports on the progress of the newer students. You seem to have impressed him with your intake of knowledge, so I wouldn't be surprised if he continues to push you."

The five-year-old just sighed, resigning himself to continue his current pace for a while.

The woman snorted lightly. "Oh stop pouting, after just four months here you've managed to learn more than most do in half a decade, if only in languages and spots of theoretical knowledge. You've created quite the foundation. With your current language background, you have access to over half of our collection of texts, which is more than a few of the Masters. We only require the knowledge of three languages for our initiates, and few continue learning them in earnest when they advance."

That surprised Nathan. "Really? I don't feel like I've accomplished much at all, considering how much I've cheated."

"I would hardly call utilizing your resources as 'cheating', Nathan. The Time Stone just so happening to be one of the resources available to you does _not_ mean that you are being underhanded with its use. Though from at this point, I do not think you should use it further."

He perked up, slightly confused. "Why? It's been going fine so far."

"Yes, but we still don't know exactly what it has been doing to your brain. I have been worried for a time now that it will affect you negatively in the future. You _do_ have the body of a child right now."

Nathan nodded slowly. "Fair enough, I can't really argue that point." He was already mourning the loss of his increased learning speed, though he could still utilize his inner library and Astral Projection - once he learned it - to keep a pace that _should_ mirror what Strange was able to accomplish, but Strange was a complete genius even without counting his memory.

She smiled warmly. "Though if Master Haman is accurate, it seems you are already prepared to start with a more advanced class. We begin all of our students with the Sling Ring, which is ongoing, and starts at five in the morning on Wednesdays; if you didn't already know. Please make your way to the central courtyard at that time."

He smiled widely, unable to hide his excitement, and bowed his head. "Thank you master."

"Though before we start on that, I think it's about time we spoke of a certain topic."

Nathan raised his eyes to meet her own. "I'm honestly surprised you waited this long."

She smiled slightly. "I think you'll find I can be quite patient. Though I wanted to see how you would fare with your basic studies before we started on this conversation, as well as get an idea of your overall personality. I feel I know you well enough now to at least understand your abilities. Now, I wish to know your drive."

"In other words, you want to know why I'm here, why I'll help protect this world, and how I know all that I do."

The older woman just continued smiling.

Nathan chuckled. "Alright, where should I start?"

* * *

 **A/N**

So I tried to make the Time Stone crap believable, but it still sounds a little farfetched to me. Too many things about it that don't match up with what I want, or just don't make sense. If you didn't notice those problems, I ask that you don't go looking for them and just try to enjoy what I wrote. I couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I'm decidedly in the "well, fuck it" mood.

 **Oricalcum** \- A legendary metal/alloy that was referenced in… I'm not sure how many ancient texts. I think Plato talks about it in Timaeus and Critias when he mentions Atlantis. If you want to look it up, skip to Critias. Him talking about what Solon saw at Atlantis is pretty cool, but back to the Legendary metal: we actually found some Oricalcum in a real-life shipwreck a few years ago, so _yes,_ we do actually know what it was made of. Look it up. The Greeks thought that it held mystical properties, and claimed that all of Atlantis was adorned with it due to those properties. For all intents and purposes, it was a _real_ metal, but I'm making up what it can do in this fic.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**

In case it's not obvious, Karl is Karl Mordo. The dude in green that was with Dr. Strange throughout half of the movie. Keep in mind that he's about seventeen at the moment. That's why he's a bit more immature than he was in the movie.

Also, to reassure people about Nathan being a five-year-old, keep in mind that it's still only 1997 in the story right now. The first Iron man movie happens in 2008/9. He'll be in his early twenties throughout the important parts of the story. This is all just the beginning. There will also be a few small time skips to make the lead-up more digestible. We'll have some fun in the meantime though, so don't worry too much about the age thing.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

Nathan laughed lightly. "So yeah, I didn't exactly lie when I told Karl that I was an interdimensional demigod."

The woman nodded. She listened to his entire tale without the slightest reaction, and it was annoying Nathan to high-fucking-heaven. She really had a way of making people forget their egos.

Did the tiny, budding, Celestial-human hybrid that was dimensionally displaced think he was _special_ or something?

Heh, _nope._ Apparently not.

"That's a fairly interesting story." She began. "I've only seen something similar a couple times, though for a few differences. Each instance has been included in the visions I've gotten through the Time Stone, the being in question hadn't died, and they're usually fully aware of _how_ it happened. I know of a number of entities and magics that can move physical beings or souls across dimensions with varying difficulty. The Sling Ring that we use here, for instance, should allow us to travel to your home dimension with relative ease. However I am _not_ aware of anything that might be capable of altering souls to fit into a sort-of 'reincarnation cycle', nor anything outside the influence of the ingot of Time itself."

Nathan nodded, thinking for a moment. "So I would be able to go back to my old dimension, then?"

She gave a small, sad shake of her head. "It's not exactly that simple. Most beings have some difficulty existing in a dimension outside of their own. Every dimension has its own unique energy, and every living thing uses that energy as a cornerstone to build off of. You being 'reborn' here makes me think that cornerstone was altered. There are still plenty of ways to travel the dimensions safely, but one must know exactly what they're dealing with so that they do not undo themselves in the process." She tilted her head. " _You_ may have an easier time of it due to your circumstances, but I wouldn't want to risk it yet. Not until we teach you how we normally protect ourselves, at least."

The five-year-old frowned, then nodded again and asked, "Is that what you mean by 'altering souls', then? Being refitted for this dimension?"

"Well that, and when you were brought here, by _whatever_ means, you ended up in the _one possible_ circumstance that allowed for you to possess a Celestial heritage. And from what you tell me, Celestials' souls may be an entirely different animal compared to other, more mortal races." She drummed her fingers on her desk. "That means your soul was probably altered to be able to survive in your new body as well as our universe."

Nathan grunted with a sour look on his face. "I was trying _really_ hard not to think about my circumstances being intelligent design, let _alone_ the idea that I might not even be the same person anymore."

The Ancient One huffed in slight laughter, but conceded and changed the topic. "So in this… story, that the beings in your original dimension had access to, Kaecilius kills me around twenty years from now, and Strange takes over the role of Sorcerer Supreme? I admit I'm a little curious how that turned out. I've already seen his immediate future, but I couldn't see past my own death. I can see a few paths of his now, but they seem to be slightly altered in most cases."

"Yeah, he definitely becomes a powerful Sorcerer Supreme - if not _the_ most powerful," Nathan crossed his arms and nodded to himself, looking at the floor, "but in the original story, after the incident with Dormammu; Karl, Wong, and Strange are literally the only competent magic users left. At least that I know of. I don't know of any other groups that might exist. Oh, and due to that misunderstanding that we cleared up earlier, Karl went all 'emo crazy person', and started murdering anyone that's ever used even the slightest bit of magic. Nearly all of the people that came here to 'cure' themselves had that 'cure' stripped from them during his crusade."

She frowned. "That's disheartening."

"Well, I think we've already fixed the thing with Mr. Mordo. One of the things I want to do is stop Kaecilius from rebelling in the first place. He seems a little power hungry, but his whole goal was to make everyone - that didn't get in his way - immortal and immune to time. Good intentions, meet the road to hell."

"I imagine that the main goal of yours is to have a more united front against this Thanos character, though."

Nathan shrugged. "I would rather not only have two capable sorcerers on our side against the purple idiot. If we can keep all of Kamar-Taj alive and active, we should be able to put up a better fight." Nathan's eyes widened slightly. "Oh hey, why don't we try and focus more people through the combat path?"

She shook her head slightly. "We teach a basic combat course here to everyone that's able, true, but we do not force our students down a path that they don't wish to follow."

Nathan grunted. "Yeah, but if you frame it as self defense, which isn't really a lie, we'll at least have more people that can fight, even if we can't rely on them to show up to a battlefield."

"We already do that, Nathan. I may be old, but I'm not senile. I've had a _few_ good ideas over the years."

"Oh." He blinked. "That's good then. Well I guess the only thing we can do is prevent that whole debacle with Dormammu that's supposed to happen." Nathan paused and shrugged. "Shouldn't be too difficult to turn Kaecilius around since you gave that lecture last month. If all that bullcrap ends up happening, we'll lose over ninety percent of the people who can actually fight."

She had actually given that lecture about the nature of the 'Natural Law', and there were a number of students that looked like they were rethinking their entire existence. A couple of the masters, as well. Just that one talk wouldn't fix everything, but it was a pretty good start.

Through his time at Kamar-Taj, Nathan had put together a rough number of the practitioners of the Mystic Arts. There were roughly two hundred students at various points in their education, and about twelve Masters, though only around thirty lived in the temple. The other hundred-and-seventy-ish came and went as they pleased, or lived out of the other Sanctums.

There were three 'cliques' that Nathan could point out: the combatants, the scholars, and the self-helpers - or those that were only here because magic could help them get over some physical or mental disability. Nathan still didn't really have an idea of who fit where, or even how many were in each section, but there were easily more scholars than there were in the other two groups combined. The self-helpers only ever stuck around long enough to fix whatever problem they had, but there were a few that joined the scholars once their own problems were solved. There was even one lady that had recently joined the combat classes after converting a massive amount of muscular scar tissue into working muscle. It apparently took over three years for her to manage that feat, but she did it.

She was turning into a bit of a badass, actually.

The Ancient One sighed. "Unfortunately, when I was checking possible futures a few months ago, there were still a number of possibilities where a group of radicals start off those events. Though a good amount of them counted Kaecilius firmly on our side, we should still prepare for the worst I fear Dormammu's influence may be growing."

"I thought you didn't like to share your future knowledge?"

She smiled wryly. "I don't like to share specifics, yes. A general idea is passable depending on the situation. On that note, though, in light of the revelation that you too possess possible future knowledge, I would implore that you do not try and share it further than you have. You may speak with me about it if you wish, but few understand its burden, and I can tell you from experience that doing so will backfire magnificently." Her face contorted slightly, as if reliving a bad memory. "Everything tends to end much worse than foreseen when one shares this kind of information."

Nathan frowned. "Does that mean I shouldn't act on all the crap I know is going to happen?"

She shook her head. "I will not tell you how to lead your life, Nathan. Just keep my warning to heart. It's not so much acting on it, as it is _telling people_ what will happen. People react poorly. Even the most composed of us fail in this regard."

Nathan bit his lip. "Alright, well I have a few plans, but I trust your judgment on this stuff, so I'll definitely keep you informed so you can yell at me when I'm doing something stupid." He looked her in the eyes. "Sound fair?"

She nodded with a small smile. "That sounds more than agreeable. You'll be making some important decisions, Nathan. Let me know if I can help." Then leaned her head forward slightly. "Anything about those 'plans' you can tell me now?"

Nathan shrugged. "They're all rough and barely actually planned out. To be honest, if I had to do it _now,_ I would just try and be there for the big crap, and just wing it."

"That sounds more like 'goals', than 'plans'."

"Semantics." He waved it off with a small laugh. "Well basically, a bunch of heroes will be popping up left and right in about ten-to-fifteen years from now. I want to be able to help them out."

"That would be the other topic I wanted to talk about." She began, adopting a more serious atmosphere. "You've told me about yourself, but I still don't know _why_ you're on this side of the equation. You've been given an incredible set of abilities and circumstances, and I regret to say that most people in your situation would not immediately try and be a hero."

"I think you're forgetting the fact that I was a pirate for eight years."

"Against your will, and you left as soon as you were able."

Nathan grunted.

She studied him for a moment. "Why do you want to help people? I can understand stopping Thanos, as you might end up being a victim yourself if you don't, but 'because you can' is an incredibly flimsy response. Who's to say you won't turn on us all later?"

"Well you, for one." Nathan pointed out. "Remember? Time Stone visions?"

"Please don't bring logic into this. I'm psychologically analyzing you." She responded with a smirk.

"Oh, burn. My friend, Riley, would be rolling in his grave right now."

"Is he one of the people that helped you make… Alice? Was it?"

Nathan nodded. "Alice is just what I call the version I made in this universe. The original's name was 'Overlord' and had the voice of Darth Vader because we thought it was funny." He paused for a moment, having a revelation. "That might actually be the reason why people went out of their way to kill off my friends... Huh."

"But yeah," He continued after shaking himself, "he was easily one of the more important people in the project. He was the only psychologist we had on the team, but completely essential to figuring out how the artificial intelligence should process information. We brought him in when the first iteration went sort-of insane." He smiled, thinking back on the memory. "It tried to kill us all with bad jazz music."

She blinked. "What?"

"Yep. Just turned on the radio, and kept typing out 'Die Die Die' in the command prompt while sending pictures of broken musical instruments to our cell phones."

She blinked again. "Well I believe we're getting sidetracked."

The ex-Ravager nodded, bit the inside of his cheek and 'hmm'ed. "Well I really don't have a better answer than 'because I can'." He started picking at one of his nails. "I'm not selfless, but my sense of self preservation is focused almost entirely on the financial aspect, rather than the 'keeping me alive' part of it." He waved a hand. "At least, that's what an old friend always told me, anyway.

"I don't know." He continued after a moment of thinking. "It's just every time I think about becoming evil, I picture some little girl asking her father why her mom had to die, or why their house got destroyed and why they have to live on the streets… It's just… I don't want to be the cause of that." He leaned back in his chair, staring at a point in space a few feet in front of him. "I'm definitely not the type of person to throw my entire being into helping at the cost of my way of life, but if I can secure my own space in this world with relative ease, make sure I'm fed and housed… And I have the power to help? Why the hell _wouldn't_ I do it where I can? At least save the people in front of me?"

"So you'd jump into a fight for your life, _just_ because you don't want a hypothetical child to cry?"

The five-year-old just shrugged. "It's dumb, I know. Every kid wants to be a superhero, and every adult wants love and luxury. I just don't want that little girl to suffer because of my decisions. I guess I get that from my mom in this life. She just wanted everyone to smile." He finished, with a sad smile of his own.

The Ancient One regarded him for a moment. "Her name was Meredith, right?"

Nathan nodded. "Yup. Total hippie."

She frowned, tapping the desk. "When you first arrived, you mentioned that your father killed her. I am only aware of the Tumor."

He grunted. "Well I know that from the stories from my original world. Ego, my father, was talking to Peter when they finally met up. He explained his evil plan, how he planted the tumor in mom and just fucked off back into space. Then Pete shot him full of holes. Only served to piss him off, but damn was that cathartic to watch."

"You're putting quite a bit of faith into the 'truth' of these stories, Nathan. It's still possible that things could differ from them."

He nodded slowly. "Well, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. It's all I have to go off of. I promise I'll keep an eye out for anything that differs, but I really don't remember _everything_ from those stories. I _do_ have reason to believe that Ego's still a prick and planning on murdering the entire universe. The little details so far have all matched up with the lead-up to his plan in the story. The only proof I need is the seed of doom he supposedly left in the woods behind a Dairy Queen in Missouri. I was going to look for that after I could teleport around like a magic monkey on crack."

The Sorcerer Supreme held up a hand. "Wait a moment. I think we skipped over a few details there. He's planning on destroying the universe?"

Nathan shook his head. "Just taking over every planet, and turning them into extensions of himself, as well as all the people on them. It's genocide against life itself. The only thing stopping him is the fact that he needs another Celestial to help power the effort. The problem with _that,_ is he's the only Celestial he knows. So to help it along, he tried having a metric fuck-ton of kids, trying to spread the gene. Only succeeded with Peter in the stories I know, but now there's me too."

"I can't help but feel that you're not giving this problem enough attention."

"The problem literally _can't_ surface until Pete or I meet Ego. The only reason why it went as far as it did in the stories was because Pete held onto an Infinity Stone and didn't die. Word got back to Ego about that, and he started looking for him."

"When does this happen in the story?"

"When Pete's in his mid thirties, so about sixteen-seventeen years from now… ish." Nathan's mental library didn't only help him organize new information. He was able to go back through the memories of his previous life as well, and even though they were a bit blurry, he could pick up a _lot_ of small details and cement them in memory with a little bit of effort. Because of that, he had a pretty solid idea of the order of events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It wasn't perfect though. A lot of that information withered and died _way_ before he learned how to use the ' _Method of Loci'._ He hadn't seen _every_ marvel movie either, a decision he was now cursing. Also, The Ancient One brought up a good point. The movies might not have been the end-all-be-all of the MCU. It was actually possible that groups like the Fantastic Four, or the X-Men were around, just quiet, or hadn't come into their powers yet.

' _I'll have to look up records of James Howlett, the Baxter Building, and anything else I can remember about the extended Marvel Universe…'_

"Pete managed to kill Ego in the story just fine," Nathan continued, "but I _do_ intend to be there for that. Ego isn't like the other Celestials that you know about. He's been alone since he was 'born', so he doesn't understand the advancements that the others have made. He's not nearly as strong as they are, and doesn't have access to their resources. I know his weakness, and with magic and whatever else I have under my belt by then… Well for a god, he doesn't live up to the threat level."

"Careful, Nathan. Your hubris is showing."

Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but immediately closed it. Then after a moment; "Literal definition of 'hubris'... Well played."

She nodded, ignoring the humor. "Confidence is all well and good, Nathan, but I've seen many go against far weaker foes and find themselves lacking. You have the potential to save many, and I don't want to see that squandered due to unfounded arrogance."

The five-year-old made a face, and sighed after a moment. "Point. Yeah, I feel like I might have psyched myself up a little too much to hold the Power Stone for the first time. You have _no_ idea how scary that was; _knowing_ that literally everyone else that tried, exploded."

"I think I can imagine. My point, though is that you need to be as strong as possible if you're going to take on a Celestial. Even if there is a good bit of time before those events happen, and even if your father isn't as strong as the others of his kind, for all intents and purposes, he is still a god, and you are still mortal. If only because you haven't figured out how not to be."

"Wait." Nathan held up a tiny hand. "I can be 'not mortal'?"

"You can control matter on an atomic level with little difficulty." She deadpanned. "You can use the Time Stone without a medium, and you have plenty of access to knowledge that, combined with your abilities could have the potential to extend your life almost indefinitely. I think it's safe to say you'll figure it out at some point."

"Huh…That's a bit heavy."

She nodded. "It was supposed to be. The only reason why I used my own method of extending life, was because there was no one who could replace me. Duty has been my bread and butter for millennia now. I know of the horrors that being alone in time can bring."

Nathan blinked at her suggested lifespan, but kept to the topic. "You have a literal army here." He cocked his head. "Didn't you say before that your organization consisted of Master and Student only? Before you started the school here, that is? Aren't the sheer numbers enough to carry your weight?"

"Unfortunately not." She shook her head slightly. "Due to my decision in pulling energy from the Dark Dimension, I later found that Dormammu was made aware of Earth because of it. Without my holding him back, obscuring the Earth from him, he would have long since taken the planet. Even counting the Sanctum Shields."

"And no one, not even a few together, can take up that responsibility?"

"Not unless they too pull from his dimension; a risk and burden I am not willing to impart on my students."

Nathan frowned. "So what made you perform the ritual, then? You don't strike me as power hungry."

The yellow-garbed woman sighed sadly. "Naivety. I wasn't even fourty years old at the time, but I was afraid that I wouldn't find my replacement before the end of my natural life. My charge was to protect the Time Stone, and my master dying in a battle with several demons left me as its only protector." She clenched her jaw. "My master had warned me away from the teachings of Cagliostro years before his death, but at the time, I thought it my only option. I had been losing hope in finding someone to continue the Arts.

"It wasn't three years later that I found a suitable candidate." She continued, showing a peeved expression for a faction of a second. "She has long since passed, but it was _her_ idea to start a school after teaching her own disciple." She leaned back in her seat and gestured to the room. "Kamar-Taj was the home of my master, and his master before him. The history of my line tells us that it was Agamotto's home when he started the chain."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment until Nathan raised his head.

"Just… How old _are_ you, exactly?"

She chuckled. "Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady her age?"

"Oh come on!" Nathan threw his hands up. "I'm super freaking curious, here! You're easily the oldest living member of humanity."

The yellow-garbed lady looked him in the eyes with a raised eyebrow. "You seem to be making quite the assumption there, Nathan."

The ex-Ravager blinked. "... Are you telling me I'm wrong?" Her title was _'The Ancient One'_ for fuck's sake. Nathan felt lied to.

The lady nodded. "I know of at least two that are older than me. One appears in and out of history since the age of Pharaohs, parading around as a god among men. I never met the man, but he has caused much strife throughout his time. I am not aware if he still lives, but records of him can be found in the library. One of our students was rather interested in him in the early twentieth century, and decided to compile the resources. His name was En Sabah Nur."

That… Sounded suspiciously familiar to Nathan. He would be looking that up. "And the other?"

"Selene Gallio." She responded simply. "A powerful psychic and gifted sorcerer. Her, I've met."

"Sorcerer? Was she taught here?" Nathan asked, interested in another seemingly immortal magic user. If she was taught at Kamar-Taj, how was it she was _older_ than the woman in front of him?

However she shook her head, answering the question. "I don't know where she acquired her skills in the Mystic Arts, but she is far older than Nur. Nearly three times as much, and has been active for the entirety of that time. We fought once. I only won by utilizing the power I pull from the Dark Dimension to trap her. She managed to escape, but she hasn't caused nearly as much of a public upset as Nur, though that's not for a lack of trying."

"She's been alive for so long, and _hasn't_ succeeded? Even _once_?" The child asked incredulously.

"Oh she's caused her fair share of problems, just not on the same scale as Nur. She prefers to work in the shadows. Currently, I believe she associates with an elite club of shady businessmen in Europe."

"If you know where she is, why not confront her again?"

"She simply isn't a priority if she's not causing problems." The Sorcerer Supreme shrugged. "I'm also the only one capable of doing so, and am kept quite busy here."

Nathan had seen the truth in that. It was nearly a constant battle, keeping extra-dimensional beings at bay. All of the Masters had their hands full, fighting off creatures that fed on dreams, shadow beasts that ate light, or any number of weird things that wanted some part of the cake. There were even _actual demons_ that showed up from time to time. The last 'demon invasion' was in South Africa about twenty years ago, and it seemed to be a semi-regular occurrence.

Mephistopheles had a few hands in the pot, apparently.

And that was another thing: he should expect the Ghost Rider at some point. He heard that the soul-sucking fire-demon-man was in ' _Agents of Shield',_ but he never got around to watching any meaningful length of that show.

"So literally everyone older than you is a bad cookie? Fun." Nathan pouted. "But really though; how long have you been around? I'm even more curious after hearing about those two."

Her lips twitched upwards. "Well, lets just say I met a man named Siddhārtha Gautama in my first century alive." She leaned forward slightly. "You might know him better as 'Buddha'."

The five-year-old gaped. "Please don't tell me that the cornerstone to a whole _religion_ was just a sorcerer prancing around."

The ancient lady laughed. Like, fully laughed. "No, no. Gautama was no sorcerer. He _did_ have a type of magic of his own, one which is still practiced today with little success, but he did not practice the Mystic Arts as stated by Agamotto. I cannot say the same for some other messiahs though." Her eyes shifted, staring _through_ the wall on the far side of the room. "There was once a man named Yeshua for instance. The pronunciation differs greatly depending on the language, but he was widely seen as the son of a God for the magical feats he would perform, even though he never claimed to be. However he _was_ indeed chosen by a deity of some sort. I could gather that much from the time he spent here in Kamar-Taj in his youth. If he was related, though, I am not aware. Extra-dimensional beings of power claiming champions was not… entirely uncommon in that era; even more so for the era before it.

"I later heard stories of his travels and exploits," She continued, "where he used his immense talent in the Arts, and personal gifts, to spread peace. I was sad to hear of his demise when the news arrived. Quite brutal, if I'm honest. There were tales of his return, but I never put much weight in them. Unfortunately though, his teachings have been misconstrued over the years. Many _wars_ have been started to 'defend' them."

Something in that story rung a few bells in Nathan's mind, but he couldn't place it. "How did he die?"

She adopted a wry smile, still staring through the back wall. "The empire of the time and place saw him as a threat." She said simply.

Nathan waited for her to continue, but nothing further came.

After another moment, she turned to him. "Thank you Nathan. We got a little sidetracked, but that was all I needed. Remember; Wednesday at five sharp."

Nathan stood from his seat and bowed slightly. "Of course, Master."

* * *

Come Wednesday, Nathan couldn't quite contain himself. He stood in the courtyard with about twenty other students as one of the Masters; a short, bald, old man with a staggeringly long goatee, walked around with a box containing a number of large, dull golden rings. As he stopped in front of Nathan, the five-year-old picked one out of the box, and nodded to the man, who moved on to the next disciple.

As the Master moved along slowly, Nathan took the time to examine the ring. It was a little large for him, but it was made of _two_ rings, connected by a thick bar that laid over top of them. Concluding that it was made entirely of Oricalcum, Nathan spotted two small rivets placed on either side of the bar's top face, along with a complex pattern that he could recognize from his studies in Eldritch Enchanting.

The pattern was a binding seal, if he placed it correctly… He'd look into it later.

"The Sling Ring is an essential tool in the Mystic Arts." The Master began once each student had a ring. His voice echoing throughout the courtyard as he walked towards the front. "They allow us to travel throughout the Multiverse. An essential tool for all practitioners of the Mystic arts. I am here to teach you all how to use them, but it is up to you to do so. All you need to do is focus. _Visualize._ See the destination in your mind; imagine every detail. The clearer the picture, the quicker, and _easier_ , the gateway will open."

Now standing in front of the group, he placed his own ring on the index and ring fingers of his left hand, then held it out in front of him in a fist. "First, you must calm your mind. As you are aware, completing any spell is a battle between your greater mind, and your emotions. Let them wash away. _Feel_ the ring on your fist, and focus." He let the crowd of students to his instructions for a moment. "Have you noticed?" He asked. "It is quite a complicated tool. There are three parts to it: one ring to ground your location, the second ring to link it to another, and the bar connecting them, both the rings _and_ the locations."

He looked around, confirming he was understood before continuing. "There is a concept that you must understand before successfully creating a gateway: location does not exist. You _are_ where you wish to be. Let the ring handle the magic. All you must do, is _will_ yourself away."

He rose his right hand in line with his left fist, and drew a small circle in the air.

Immediately, golden sparks exploded in an arc as he drew them, slowly completing a large circle in the empty air. When the circle was completed, the air inside shimmered and blurred until an entirely different scene was displayed in front of the students.

An endless valley of flowers sitting atop rolling hills, all bending and weaving in the wind.

"Remember." The Master continued, letting the gateway fizzle out. "Location does not exist. Begin."

* * *

 **A/N**

Holy shit. That beginning conversation was only supposed to be like… a quarter of how long it turned out to be. Was going to end it after that, but I needed to give you guys _some_ magic. I managed to set up a couple things in there, but I hope it didn't bore you.

Please don't get mad at me for throwing in a little religious lore. I totally made all that up, but the Marvel Universe has already explained away plenty of Gods as just ancient mutants, or aliens. Jesus and Yahweh are already accounted for in regular Marvel lore as well. I just expanded on them. Feel free to look them up.

If you're wondering, it is uncertain if he ever _did_ claim to be the Son of God. "Sons of God" was a term used by the Jewish people to describe their entire faith, and Jesus _did,_ in fact, use it to describe himself according to the Good Book. Jesus _did_ repeat the phrase "I AM" which was significant, as it was implying he _was_ God in some interpretations of the Book of John, and there may be more references that I am missing. However there are other interpretations for this, and I prefer to think of the man as humble.

Now I fully embrace the fact that I might be wrong in all of this. If that's the case, I truly apologize for any feelings of discontent I may have caused by including that segment. I am not a religious man, but I felt it prudent to try and link the history of the world together; to give the Ancient One a more… Motherly feel. I have studied parts of the Old Testament, and am going to school for Ancient Studies, focusing on just after Dark Age Greece through the time period leading up to the end of Pompeii in 79 AD, so I like to think I have _some_ qualifications to hold a conversation on the topic. If you're interested, or feel I've failed to express something correctly, PM me and we can talk about it. I am always willing to learn.

Again, I promise nothing regarding the timing of the next chapter. I'm slow.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

First, before we begin the chapter, some people are still having difficulties with the whole 'Nathan is now five' thing. I will just say that there is a girl he will meet later on (don't ask, spoilers are bad) and I wanted their ages to match. They will both be adults when they meet. I changed his age for two reasons: potential romance with this specific character, and the fact that I find it funny. Can you imagine all the reactions to a tiny badass? Well you don't have to, because I will be writing them in. Stop bitching about it.

A lot of people didn't like the amount of exposition in the last chapter. I was afraid of that, but it was necessary to set up, and close out, some things. I am not the world's best author. Still learning. I'm sorry if I over explain things, or maybe have too many things explained at one time. I'm working on it.

On the bright side, we're learning magic in this chapter. Yay, plot progression!

Another thing: If you want to ask questions in the reviews, _and get an answer_ , be sure to sign in and enable replies. I may not get to all of them, but I do try and answer questions. I will at least _read_ all of them, though. **I refuse to respond to individual questions in the Author's Notes of the story itself** , which means anyone asking questions as a Guest will not get an answer. If it's a good question that I think needs to be answered for everyone's benefit, I will, but only for that reason. I will try and fit these answers into the story itself, rather than filling out the A/N's with plot-defining bullshit, because I know a lot of people just skip them.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

"I am where I wish to be?" Nathan repeated to himself, studying the Sling Ring. "Why is everything a fucking riddle?"

"No." The Master repeated from twenty feet away, looking directly at Nathan. The Hell? Nathan was mumbling, how did he hear that?

… _Magic._ Right.

"You _are_ where you wish to be." The old man repeated, putting a little more emphasis on the 'are' than before.

Nathan blinked. Was it a question of 'being', then? As in existence? But he said location didn't exist… No, he said 'wish' too, which made it more along the lines of willpower, but…

The five-year-old's thoughts bounced around in his head, trying to find the cipher to this puzzle when he caught a glimpse of the other students. Half of which had a fierce look of determination, glaring at a point in space just a few feet in front of them. The other half were just as confused as he was, staring down at the ring in their hands.

Some of these students had taken this lesson a few times. It was only required the once for each student, but a different Master would cycle through each week, offering a different perspective on the first basic class everyone takes. The _only_ class that everyone takes. The only actual _scheduled_ class that they offered.

Meaning that this was a piece of magic that was slightly different for everyone, that's why the instruction was only like three sentences.

OK. So the concept was that _location_ didn't exist, and there was an emphasis on willpower. Meaning Nathan had to… Believe? No, he had to force himself to link two locations in his mind, and combine them, then _will_ a sort of doorway to connect them, all the while channeling Eldritch energies through the Sling Ring.

Right?

Well accessing the Eldritch energies wasn't all that difficult. The third or fourth book that the Librarian assigned was always the same for every new student, containing a meditation technique to sense the energies of the cosmos.

Just think along the lines of that scene in the movie; where The Ancient One opened Strange's "eye" when they first met.

Even though that was more of a forced astral projection, in the Astral Form, a person is directly put into contact with all forms of energy, and can learn to access them individually in their physical form, through practice. Nathan couldn't project at this point, but the meditation technique took him halfway there.

The ex-space pirate had a pretty decent handle on accessing the energies, but he couldn't really use them for any type of magic yet. He _did_ find that he could use them to help replenish his Celestial energy. However, even though it was much more effective than his normal efforts, it didn't hold a candle to what he could pull from an Infinity Stone. Think _garden hose_ as normal, _fire hose_ as pulling from Eldritch energy, and the _goddamn Nile River_ for the Power Stone.

Turning his attention back to the Sling Ring, he held his fist out in front of him and started to funnel some of those cosmic energies into the ring, feeling it hum with slight power. After that was a fight of focus; trying to balance the energies with the concept of a lack of _fucking_ location.

He was lucky the ring was handling the hard part, to be honest.

It took about twenty minutes before he didn't really have to think about funneling the energies anymore. He knew it would take a much longer time before it was second nature; not having to think about it at all, so he could focus on the complex magical formulas without splitting his mind in seven different directions, but honestly, what did he expect on the first day?

In the end, he didn't get anything more than a couple of golden sparks that morning, but after focusing on the task, and nothing else for the next week?

Oh boy that sparkly, golden, _stable_ gateway was a beautiful sight to see.

He spent some time trying to figure out where to make a portal to, and ended up with that island back on Morag, the one where he spent three months with the Power Stone. It was the only place that _wasn't_ on a spaceship that he could remember clearly, other than his room in Kamar-Taj. Plus, proof of concept: he could travel between _galaxies_ in a blink if he wanted to, now.

Bonus too; the Sling Ring was apparently his to _keep._

The students that studied enchanting were in charge of making them, he learned, and the base materials for Oricalcum only cost about 850 rupees per ring, so the temple could reasonably afford to give them out. He had still had no idea what that was in USD, but he could get a pretty decent, if cheap, meal for that much.

Nathan would be joining in on those enchanting groups later on, since it was one of his three main focus points in his education; from when he was previously prompted by the Librarian. It wasn't a priority at the moment, but he could see it becoming incredibly useful.

But back to the magic he was currently learning:

The Sling Ring was just the beginning. The first thing he put time into after that, was figuring out Astral Projection so he could pull a _Dr. Strange_ and keep learning while his physical body slept - somehow, it was possible to pull copies of books into the Astral Plane, much like one's clothes, which was the only reason the process was feasible. To that end he joined a couple study groups where the veteran students would give pointers between their own projects, and a couple of the Masters doing the same.

Within four or five days, he had it down, which he honestly owed to all the different perspectives he picked from, be it the Masters, the other students, or the books _. Great Mother Meredith Quill_ , the _books!_ With all the languages he knew, he could pick the brains of a wide variety of Masters from across the centuries!

He was starting to see why the study of languages was considered the foundation to learning at Kamar-Taj. None of the other students shared his learning speed, mainly just because of this. Half of them could even use the basics of ' _The Method of Loci',_ and they still couldn't keep up and he wasn't even using the Time Stone anymore.

After that, pairing Astral Projection, _'The Method of Loci',_ and _all_ the books, he just started to read. The only thing on his daily menu that took time away from that was the general combat classes, where he learned to shape basic Eldritch energies into shapes of hardened, sparkly weapons, or whips, and use them in the Shaolin-esque style that they taught there.

He did already know a more instinctual way of fighting that the Ravagers taught him, but it was still nothing compared to actual combat classes. Being in as young of a body as he was made the process a bit more difficult, though, so at the suggestion of one of the other students, he tried to adopt a more 'bouncy' aspect of the style; dodging and weaving, instead of aggressiveness and blocking.

He couldn't wait to kick his brother's ass when he got the chance. The sass-monster was a much better fighter when they were learning together, and put him on the floor more times than Nathan wanted to admit.

Outside of those classes, he read about everything that he might need as a mystic defender of Earth: extra-dimensional creature bestiaries, first-person accounts of Masters calming random cosmic energy spikes and accounts of fighting off said creatures, tutorial scrolls on various forms of magic, and records of various dimensions that his predecessors had traveled to. All the while carefully organizing the information in his mental library, making sure he would be able to retain as much as possible.

Overall, by the time he turned seven - _again,_ he was counted among those veteran students that helped teach the new arrivals.

Which is why he was dealing with _this_ idiot.

"You expect me to believe, that this…" The Middle-Eastern man paused, waving his hands in a large gesture towards Nathan. "Toddler is capable of anything more than wetting the bed?" He finished in a thick accent.

The man, though Nathan was hesitant to call him that, was a rather lanky individual named Imir. He was the son of some rich businessman from Dubai, and lived the life of luxury; fed with a platinum spoon since birth, and seemed to be the type to scoff at the prospect of switching to the golden utensil. God save you if you suggested _silver._

Nathan was honestly disappointed. There was another student in the temple that was from Dubai, named Rasheed. Rasheed was one of the few students that helped Nathan learn Arabic, and they had a relatively friendly relationship built up since then. Rasheed even had about the same level of upbringing that Imir had, yet was far less conceited about it.

Nathan had been hoping to earn another likable colleague, but it seemed this guy was pretty hung up on being a cunt.

"It's bad enough that I must deal with a _woman_ in charge of this… _heap."_ He continued, looking around with an expression of disgust, before returning his attention to Karl; completely ignoring Nathan. "And now I am subjected to this?!"

"Hey Karl," Nathan began, cutting off whatever his friend was about to say in retaliation, "Want to go get some lunch? My treat."

Karl blinked and looked down at Nathan, a light of realization tinting his eyes after a moment. "Can we try out that new corner shop a few streets down? I hear they have Mexican food."

The seven-year-old breathed in quickly. "I'd kill for a burrito. It's been… a long time since I've had one of those." The last time he had the delicacy was a week or so before he had been abducted by the ravagers, so nearly eleven years. That was way too long to go without a burrito.

"Kaecilius recommended the place, said it was pretty good." Karl shrugged.

"Wait what? Dude, don't trust his opinion on food. He likes _anchovies."_

"He does?" Karl recoiled with an upturned lip. "Alright, maybe somewhere else, then."

"You are ignoring me." Imir piped in, visibly annoyed.

Nathan nodded in his direction. "Oh, you're still here."

"Of course I'm still here, you ignorant child!"

"Why, though? If you don't want my help, I won't give it to you. Simple as that." Said child shrugged. "You should know the way out, so feel free to use it."

The Dubaian man clenched his jaw. "I was informed that there was a man who could help me begin my studies, but instead I am lead to... this!" He spit out, gesturing at Nathan, while talking to Karl. "Do not insult me further. I demand you take me to the man who is set to teach me."

"You _did_ meet the Ancient One, right?" Karl asked, with a confusedly cocked eyebrow.

"I met the woman who pretends to be your master, yes. I expect to meet the true Master of Magic once I prove my worth." Imir returned with a proud sneer.

"Man, how are you even alive right now?" Nathan asked, baffled.

"Nathan, the Sorcerer Supreme does not _murder_ people that annoy her." The teenager shot back with half-lidded eyes. "If he was a danger, it might be different-"

"He's a danger to himself." Nathan interrupted, looking at Karl and waving his arm toward Imir. "You're hearing this crap too, right?"

"I am, but the fact that he's around to say it, proves my point."

The boy grumbled.

"I am being insulted directly now!" Imir started to turn red in the face. "The audacity of this-"

"Alright," Nathan stopped him, pulling his Sling Ring from his belt, and using his Celestial energy to float himself up to Imir's eye-level, glaring directly into them and making the man go wide-eyed at the display. He would admit that he'd been slacking with his own energy in favor of learning everything else, but he was able to get pretty good with the telekinetic aspects in passing. Pulling one book to him from across the room, levitating himself up to the top of the bookshelf to grab another… turning the pages when he got lazy. You know; little stuff.

"You're leaving. I'm done with this." Nathan stated and flicked a finger in a quick circle, opening a portal directly under Imir, depositing him in the Bay of Bengal: the same bay where he parked his ship. The Middle Eastern man yelped as the floor suddenly disappeared beneath his feet, and they heard a splash just as the now seven-year-old closed the portal.

"Now why would you do that?" Karl said, visibly trying to hold back a laugh.

"She did it again." Nathan sighed, hopping up on a bench in the hallway, and swung his legs like the kid he was. "In the past few months, I've had to deal with three of those." He gestured to the spot where he sent Imir for a swim.

"Truly? And here _he_ thought he was special."

"Oh don't get me wrong, that ego of his _was_ pretty special." Nathan nodded sagely. "I think she just doesn't want to deal with people like that, so she pushes them off on _me_ so I can kick them out for her."

Karl paused. "Are you sure about that? Or are you just assuming it?"

"Well she hasn't yelled at me for doing it yet." Nathan shrugged. "I'm pretty sure she just wants to put people like that in their place; declaring a child as their mentor just insults their 'better sensibilities'." He said with air quotes. "Either that or as a further test to newcomers. I mean you know about that switch-a-roo she does when people are first meeting the 'Ancient One'." The seven-year-old slumped. "Everyone else I've helped has been perfectly reasonable… Well, they still look at me weird, but they take me seriously."

Karl 'hmm'd', and they both fell into silence for a moment.

"That offer for lunch still available? I'm getting tired of rice."

Nathan chuckled. "Sure man, but I don't think I trust that Mexican place."

"Fair enough." He responded with a slight smile.

* * *

It didn't take long for something interesting to happen after that.

Kamar-Taj had a system in place to give experience to their more advanced students. Meaning that every month or so, there was a spontaneous field trip where one of the Masters would take a small group of students out to deal with whatever issue inevitably popped up. A few of the students that were deemed ready were told that they had five minutes to get to the central courtyard, where one of the Masters would give a short explanation and open a portal to the location.

Nathan would learn later that if the location hadn't been traveled to before, the place would be scried in a bowl of water, giving the user a decent picture of the area. A useful tip that the Ancient One 'forgot' to tell people until they traveled the hard way a few times.

Something-something- you should appreciate the gift of instant transportation, blah blah blah.

The seven-year-old was one of six students called into the courtyard that morning. All of which were under thirty years old, and had been on these excursions before. Nathan was the only first-timer, and had honestly never met anyone in the group before. Most of these people were actually on the home stretch; expecting to get the title of 'Master' within the next couple of years.

One might think that, if there were five - six if you counted Nathan - up for the _combat_ promotion, how was there such a low number of Masters? Well, the mortality rate was pretty high on these field-trips, and it was much harder to gain the title of 'Master' as a pure scholar. Every year, there were at least five students that didn't come back. Sometimes even the Masters would be overwhelmed. For example, in the case of that Demon invasion in South Africa twenty years ago… Nobody came back. The Sorcerer Supreme was forced to deal with that one in the end.

Even so, all of the people going into it were explained the risks, as the Master was currently doing for everyone in the courtyard, and _nobody_ was allowed to go unless they were recommended by a combat instructor. Everyone _chose_ this path, despite its risks, and Nathan was no exception.

He had gotten his recommendation just two days before, and refused to back down. He had spent just under two years at Kamar-Taj so far, and in that time, he had learned _far_ more than he had ever thought possible. Nathan was ready.

Probably.

"Do you all understand the perils of our task?" The kind voice of Master Ghodi asked, staring directly at the lone child in the group. Which made sense, everyone else had already been on these trips, meaning they knew the ropes. It wasn't a question of abilities, as everyone here needed the OK of a combat Master. His presence might have caused a bit of surprise, but nothing more on that end.

Nathan nodded in a small bow toward the sixty-two-year-old Indian man.

Master Ghodi was a spry old-timer; very well built for a man his age. He was bald, like most of the other men at the temple, and had a thick black beard that didn't give his age away. The only thing doing that were the wrinkles. He also stood an inch or two shorter than most, walked with a slight limp, and, forgoing a cane, kept his hands clasped under baggy sleeves.

"Good." He acknowledged, and turned away from the assembled students, flicking a finger and opening a portal.

Did he just do that without a Sling Ring?

"We will be going to northern Italy today." Master Ghodi began, as if he was picking out where they would be getting groceries. "Just East of a town called Bolzano, some sort of energy spike been detected. We will be investigating, and may have to deal with whatever has caused it. Follow me." He finished succinctly, and briskly walked through the portal.

As everyone funneled through after him, Nathan found that they had appeared _in_ Bolzano, rather than outside of it. They came out on the edge of a park by a traffic circle, next to a fountain with a bunch of stone frogs spitting water toward the center, or at least _should_ have been spitting water - according to the tourist poster that stood next to it.

At this point, a number of strange things became apparent.

The portal that they all went through blinked away, as if fighting off static, rather than the usual, smooth fizzle. Master Ghodi just stared at the space it had occupied with a blank expression, until one of the students piped up.

"Master," he began worriedly, "did you aim for the town when you set the portal?"

"I did not." He responded with the same bland tone as when he gave his earlier speech, which just made the student who asked worry more.

"There are a lot of car crashes…" The student observed after a moment. That was true. Wreckage after wreckage were littering the streets, almost as if the drivers just disappeared mid travel.

"What happened to all the people? We're in a tourist spot, on a Saturday, in mid-afternoon." One of the two women in the group pointed out.

"The clouds are really thick." An Asian student said.

"That might be due to the fires, Hong." Another student theorized.

The Asian student who had previously spoke, apparently named Hong, nodded and glanced around at a few of the buildings that were, indeed, on fire and billowing smoke into the darkened sky. A darkened sky around two P.M.

It kind of reminded Nathan of the sky in Dragon Ball Z, when the dragon was summoned. All dark and spooky, but still able to see the sun in the distant horizon.

"No." Master Ghodi corrected, still cucumber-cool. "This amount of fire could not create such clouds." He turned toward the mountains that Nathan supposed were East of the town, based off of Master Ghodi's speech back at the temple, and started to walk quickly in that direction. "Come, it seems this might be one of the more difficult tasks."

Everyone quickly fell in line with him, adopting some sort of formation that Nathan wasn't privy to. They were also walking much faster than his little legs could keep up with, without resorting to running, so he picked himself off the ground with his Celestial energy and floated along in the back of the group.

One of the older students, the one that 'corrected' Hong, glanced back at him and tsked, but quickly diverted his attention to the surroundings; keeping a watchful eye for potential danger.

The ex-Ravager smirked slightly. The dude was just jealous that Nathan could fly, and he couldn't. Sucks to be him.

Honestly, since Nathan was now able to store over forty times the amount of Celestial energy than before, due to the Oricalcum rings and despite his smaller frame, floating along like this barely did anything to his reserves. He had actually taken to using it as his primary mode of transportation, even, meaning he was continually getting better at it too; reducing the resource costs further, and being able to use it subconsciously.

Lazy? Yep. Totally fucking awesome? Definitely.

All he needed was a black, hooded robe, a deranged giggle, and to figure out how to blast lightning from his fingers. With all that, he would be an unholy combination of Yoda and Palpatine; considering how small he was.

Life goals.

Meandering in what Nathan thought was Eastward, the group didn't come across a single person, or even any dead bodies, but there was plenty destruction and fire. Cars were flipped on their side or crashed into storefronts, half of the trees in the park they passed were felled and burning, and they hadn't yet passed a building that didn't have a hole in it, or a roof that hadn't been ripped off. Past the buildings on his right, there were a set of train tracks, where even a derailed train laid on its side.

Whatever caused this anomaly had only been detected about twenty minutes ago. How did all of this happen within that time frame? How was an entire _town_ emptied of its residents in under twenty minutes?

Unless… Maybe whatever had done this had been around already, and caused this much damage before they picked up the spike? Nathan had been assuming that whatever caused the energy spike was the use of some major magic, or minor convergence between dimensions, but maybe whatever, or _whoever,_ had a way to subvert the detection spells...

If that was the case, then how were they detected at all?

This was starting to resemble _The Snap_ far too much for Nathan's liking, regardless of how contained it seemed to be.

"Eyes front." Master Ghodi said suddenly as they cleared the town's limits.

At once, all eyes turned towards the mountain range, where the fires from town seemed to have spread. Even from this distance, they could all see a single figure among felled and burning trees, cloaked in billowing darkness that even dimmed the blaze that spread around it.

Staring directly at them.

" _Descendants of the Peon Gods."_ A voice of gravel seemed to declare, rather than ask, reverberating through the air, and shaking each of the practitioners of the Mystic Arts to their core. Forget the distance between them, because it didn't yell or scream, instead merely _speaking_ those words, yet they were still heard.

" _This plane will be brought to heel."_ It continued. _"The banner of the Old Ones will be risen atop your graves, as is the fate of all that is, or will be."_

* * *

 **A/N**

I don't like this chapter. It wasn't hard to write, but I don't feel I did a good job with it. It's not as easy to read, I don't think. Sorry about that.  
To explain a couple points where I'm not confident in my story-telling for this chapter:

1\. Nathan started this chapter at just over 4 months into his stay at Kamar-Taj. About a third of the way through, there is a time-jump to where he is much more accomplished; where he continues at just under two years at the Temple, and seven years old.

2\. Nathan is not a genius: It takes him time to learn information, and figure out how to use it. If you didn't know, the entirety of Dr. Strange's learning in the Temple, before he is named the Master of the New York Sanctum, takes place over the course of **one year.** Nathan has essentially been there for five and a half, if you count his time with the Time Stone.

* * *

 **A/N #2**

If anyone here is good at art, I could use a cover image for this thing. If you want to make something and send it to me, I would appreciate it. I will update this chapter and credit the person who sent it over. If there's more than one, I'll try and make a page with them all and link to it in my bio. Now as for what to make it of, I would prefer it to be of Nathan around age twenty, but you're the artists, not me. If you want to try something else, run it by me, and I can at least tell you what it looks like in _my_ head. Or you could pick something I've already written about, like Nathan holding the Time Stone, wearing an over-sized Ravager jacket maybe? I'll accept all submissions regardless, and seriously consider each one.

As for what Nathan looks like at twenty-ish? **(Skip the next two paragraphs to avoid minor spoilers)**  
Not-quite shoulder-length, brown hair - windswept backwards type of 'do. His eyes look like windows into another galaxy (like how Peter's eyes looked when Ego "Showed him the universe" in the second movie). I'll leave facial features and hair up to you guys, I want to see where your imagination takes you. As for build; He's got some muscles, but he's still light, and just under 6-foot. Think college-student that goes to the gym somewhat regularly.

As for _stuff;_ I can picture him in either the red Ravager jacket, or light greyish-teal Kamar-Taj monk robes. He also has a forearm-length tomahawk: silver colored, modern tactical style, flat full-tang, with Nordic runes along the blade, and a thick leather wrap on the handle.

Again, this is your prerogative. Draw, paint, scribble whatever you feel like. If you have the time, energy, and boredom to put it together, I would appreciate all submissions regardless of content. I am shit at art, but this thing could use a cover image.

If I don't receive anything, that's fine, I'll just have to do a good job of painting the picture with words.

* * *

 **A/N #3 - as per usual:**

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

I know I'm slow. I don't have much time to write, with my job and school. Also got rear-ended by a bus a couple weeks ago, so stress levels are high, my neck hurts, and I have to buy a new car. All updates are sporadic and will have no noticeable pattern. Sorry.

As per the A/N of the previous chapter, I have yet to receive any submissions for cover art. I am perfectly happy to continue without it, though. I refuse to use a book cover, or movie poster, as that just feels disingenuous to me: like I'd be cheating somehow. It seems I will be sticking with the basic silhouette for now.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

 **Previously:**

"Descendants of the Peon Gods." _A voice of gravel seemed to declare, rather than ask, reverberating through the air, and shaking each of the practitioners of the Mystic Arts to their core. Forget the distance between them, because it didn't yell or scream, instead merely speaking those words, yet they were still heard._

"This plane will be brought to heel." _It continued._ "The banner of the Old Ones will be risen atop your graves, as is the fate of all that is, or will be."

* * *

If Nathan was being honest, he had no idea how to react to the creature that prophesied their doom. It wasn't attacking them, at least not yet, and Master Ghodi was just kind of… standing there, staring at the creature with bland contempt. All of the other students seemed to be in the same boat as Nathan though.

After about ten seconds, the Master finally spoke in a normal voice - totally disregarding the distance between the target and himself. "You are an Old One, then?"

The creature in the distance tilted its shrouded head. " _I am old enough to remember the great city of R'lyeh. Old enough to remember the betrayal of the New Gods, and the denial of our prize. I am old enough to_ remember, _but not old enough to be counted among the Lords."_ Its voice echoed out like before, reverberating through everyone like a twenty-foot subwoofer at a metal concert.

"From R'lyeh, then?" He asked rhetorically, pretending to think while opening a telepathic link between himself and the students.

' _All of you. This is an Angled Wraith. I'm afraid it is beyond our capabilities. I should be able to keep it busy for a time, while you escape and inform the Ancient One.'_

The darkness surrounding the wraith seemed to twitch slightly.

' _I…'_ Hong began over the link, _'I can't open a portal, Master!'_

Nathan blinked, and quickly tried accessing the Eldritch energies that permeated all of reality, and found… nothing. Was it something that the wraith was doing? Or a third party maybe?

That didn't mean they were out of magical options, though - it was obvious that telepathy still worked, but the Eldritch energies were one of the few that could be used for combat without requiring obscene sacrifices, or rituals, and were easily the most diverse as a source of magic power. Without them, this would be difficult. Not to mention they might not be the only source that was restricted. Only way to find out would be to try them all… or ask the creepy shadow monster, but Nathan doubted that it would answer. There were a couple less effective options that didn't require an external source, but they were more like cantrips than true magic; requiring the use of the caster's stamina, plain willpower, or a _lot_ of thinking. Feasible for buying some time, or as a distraction, but little else.

' _We're cut off from the main stuff.'_ The seven-year-old thought over the link, only panicking slightly.

Slightly, mind you.

' _Run then.'_ Master Ghodi replied. _'Get out of his range of influence.'_

' _How will you fight it without magic?'_ The younger female student asked.

Didn't they just cover- oh, Nathan didn't actually say any of that over the link.

" _Yes."_ The gravelly voice of the wraith spoke up suddenly, making it known that he had heard their whole conversation. _"How will you fight without your pathetic tricks?"_

Again, Mr. Monster, this has been covered. You can read minds - _apparently -_ So you should know that.

"That was supposed to be a private conversation, Wraith." Master Ghodi shot back, not appearing surprised at all - unlike everyone else, and turned to the students. "Run now. If my suspicions are correct, the wraith's influence should cover a radius of about three miles from where he stands." How the hell did he figure that?

Master Ghodi then turned back to the wraith, and got himself into a loose fighting stance as the two oldest students began sprinting away, followed by the others. Nathan just kept floating there, a little taken-aback at the events.

" _You wish to deny us our prize again, then?"_ The wraith asked, unperturbed and unmoving while the shadows undulated around him.

"What might this _'prize'_ be? Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." The Master said, though he didn't drop his stance.

Nathan couldn't see the creature clearly from this distance, being nearly half a mile away and covered in darkness as it was, but a _very_ clear image of teeth shone in his mind's eye for a split second. Cone-shaped, and jagged. Built for ripping and tearing; giving the impression of a smile from a child's deepest, darkest nightmare.

" _Our prize has always been the same, for we desire nothing else, and we will have nothing less."_ The impression of that deranged, horrible grin grew.

" _Food."_

The shadows exploded outward from the wraith in a liquid flow, consuming even the fires that clung to the trees like a burst dam. And from that inky doom, deep black tentacles of darkness-formed-mass rose from the growling void and slammed down, again and again, crawling at a terrifying pace towards Master Ghodi and Nathan.

At the same time, a slight, yellowish-gold aura started to form around Master Ghodi, who stood solid, staring down the tide like a badass, forming a Tao Mandala in one hand as a shield, as well as a golden lightsaber-like weapon that extended from his other hand's index and middle fingers.

Before the wave reached them, Nathan flung himself away through the air towards the town using his Celestial energy. He had hesitated long enough as it was, and it was getting to the point of no return, but judging by the wraith's reaction to his fellow students' escape, it wasn't too worried about them getting away; which either meant it had help, or was confident in its own abilities.

Either way didn't bode well.

Nathan didn't look back as he fled, but he could hear deep, guttural growls, roars of pain, and static, paired with the sound of dull weight crashing against the landscape, or maybe trees being uprooted. There was definitely the sound of more than one creature in that battle, and even more on his heels. He wasn't sure exactly what source of energy the Master was using to combat the wraith and its friends, but it at least _sounded_ effective. He hadn't heard any screams that might have come from a human, anyway.

It didn't take long for him to catch up with the other students: being able to fly was pretty awesome. However, the wave of darkness was quickly covering the same distance. Even alone, he wouldn't be able to escape before it reached him, so he slowed his pace to match theirs. Strength in numbers, and whatnot. As it was, the flood had already nearly reached the town, and Nathan was only just inside the first block, the other students running beside him.

"How are you still able to use magic?!" The jealous, older student from before yelled over the sounds of destruction that approached them from behind, glancing back at the floating seven-year-old.

"Doesn't matter!" Nathan yelled back. "We've got to get out of here!"

"No, he's right!" The oldest female student, who had till then been quiet, spoke up. "If you figured out something, tell us! If we can defend ourselves, we might be able to escape faster!"

Nathan shook his head. "I have a set of abilities that are a little unique. It's how I can float like this, but I'm just as limited as-" Nathan stopped that train of thought and blinked. "Wait, maybe…"

A few weeks ago, Nathan had started meeting with the Ancient One semi-regularly. In these meetings, they started talking about possible uses for his Celestial energy in regards to magic. So far, they had been considering how they might go about adding his Celestial energy to already existing magical formulae, meaning they were trying to combine Eldritch energies with the Celestial variety, as that was how they typically used Chi to enhance spells. He _had_ proved with ' _The Method of Loci'_ that his own energy could sort-of double for that particular source.

He had only tried it the once so far, and It had failed spectacularly; partially singeing one of his eyebrows.

However, he had just seen Master Ghodi use a Tao Mandala, even though their access to the orange, sparkly stuff was restricted. He had no idea what that lightsaber was, though, as it was much more uniform and controlled than a normal Eldritch weapon could ever be, but it definitely looked effective. Odds were, it was another weapon within the Dao of Weaponry, which was the same category that the Tao Mandalas fell into.

The Dao of Weaponry was easily one of the largest Daos - or 'paths' - within the Mystic Arts. Throughout time, sorcerers had created innumerable styles of weapon constructs. It was also, arguably, the easiest Dao to start with due to this diversity. There was something for everyone, and it was open to interpretation and experimentation.

To get back on track though, the fact that Master Ghodi could still channel magic meant that he could use a source that was not affected by the wraith. However if it was a source that was as open to access as the Eldritch energies, he could just tell the students to switch to it. All of which were well versed in the known 'open' sources, meaning they could change the power source for their spells with little difficulty if the extra-dimensional entity that they called on allowed it. Mostly, though, those sources restricted the spells that were usable - each having a particular set. Everyone knew at least one for each major source. All they would have to do is sacrifice a rabbit or something later, so that wouldn't have been a big issue, but the Master didn't do any of that. This meant that he was using something local. Something that came from his own being. Meaning Master Ghodi was either using a forbidden ritual binding that would give him direct access to an extra-dimensional power, or… he was using Chi, and _only_ Chi.

"Fucking _eureka!"_ Nathan whispered to himself, then spoke up to the rest of the students. "I'm going to try something. You guys keep going. If any of you can use Chi, substitute that for the source for your spells. As long as one of us can get back to the Temple-"

"Who put you in charge?" The second youngest of the group, the girl, interrupted him.

"Chi?" The older woman asked, ignoring the younger.

Nathan nodded, even though he was in the back of the group and nobody could see it. He had pulled up even with them at first, but started to pull back after his lightbulb moment, pooling his Celestial energy and shaping it into a spell. "Yeah, whatever field the wraith is putting out seems to disable our connection to everything else."

"Is that how you're flying?" Hong asked. "You're using Chi?"

"Explanations later!" Nathan snapped. "We're being chased by the fucking Abyss _itself,_ so less talky more runny!" Praying to whatever deities might be watching that what he was about to do would work. The seven-year-old dropped from his flight abruptly, turned one-eighty, and _slammed_ his fist into the ground, releasing the spell at the same time.

Immediately, a blue wall of light erupted in front of Nathan and spread out to either side, bisecting the buildings and continuing a little further into the next streets over, and stretching over twenty meters high. This spell, the _Rimu Wall,_ had grabbed his attention when he was looking up defensive magics. The description in the various texts reminded him of Wakanda's city shield in Infinity War, but golden. Now, in the mere fact that it was _blue,_ was the spitting image of it. Although it was supposed to be much smaller.

"Holy shit. That worked." He mumbled to himself.

Why was it so big? Usually, these walls are only five or so meters wi-

The ink flood _crashed_ against the blue wall of light, halted in its tracks and began to spread out. No doubt it was flowing over to the sides, but the wall would buy them a little time. However that wasn't the only thing that had been chasing them.

Lovecraftian, vaguely aquatic, monstrosities that his brain had trouble comprehending - he couldn't even tell what _color_ they were - whipped their mangled limbs and tentacles at the wall in an attempt to break it. The wall itself screamed in an orchestra of sizzles and sparks, barely holding back the flood and threatening to break at any second.

Nathan quickly poured more energy into the spell, making it shine brilliantly before clasping his hands and shoving them forward.

The wall seemed to warp slightly, then burst outward; blasting the wave of creatures and ink backward, giving him a slight respite, as well as causing no small amount of damage to the buildings that the wall cut through.

He quickly turned around to find the other students stopped and staring. "Go, you idiots! We need the cavalry!"

He caught a glimpse of them starting to book it before turning back around, already forming another spell. He swung his arm in a wide circle, blasting hurricane force winds at the wave that tried for another push, sending the creatures and ink sprawling backwards and toppling a few of the broken buildings around them, whipping debris and the smaller monsters into the air.

Again, that was _much_ more powerful than it should have been, but after the wall he suspected as much, otherwise he would have used something more powerful. However Power came with energy cost; he couldn't keep up this pace for long.

The goddamn _Summer Gale_ spell seemed to be pretty effective at halting the wave's progress - even though it didn't do _any_ damage at all, so he used it another three times before he was confident that the other students had gained some ground on the tide of horrors. However that had left him at about half of his reserves. The _Rimu Wall_ was the most expensive spell of the two, taking about a quarter total after he made it explode. That was where he found the downside in using his own energy. When he used Eldritch energies, there was literally an infinite source to pull from, meaning he could blast these spells, one after another, for all eternity without breaking a sweat. When using his own energy though, even if the spells seemed to be innately more powerful, there was a finite pool that he was draining from.

' _Oh yeah, four rings is enough._ _When will I need more energy than this any time soon?_ _'_ Nathan mocked himself. _'First damn thing I do when I get back, I swear!'_

He threw one last _Summer Gale,_ shoving in a bit more energy than before, and actually collapsed the rest of the buildings around him, crushing a few of the abominations in the process, but then, something unexpected happened.

There was a loud explosion in the distance, from back where Master Ghodi and the wraith were, and immediately afterwards, the flood stopped.

Oh the creatures were all still there, but they stopped their mindless stampede, and the inky, liquid blackness started to recede. Or rather, it started to sink into the ground; dying everything the color of the void. The cobbled paths, the cars, the broken buildings to either side. Everything that the ink had touched turned black as the pitt.

For some reason, the creatures were giving him a bit of rest as they slowly got themselves up and turned to him. Some shook themselves slightly, most with loose, unmuscled jaws or mandibles that flailed around listlessly. It was as if the wraith had them in a frenzy, crashing forward with reckless abandon. Actually that made some sense; the _Rimu Wall_ burns everything that it touches, and the creatures had just piled against it, not caring that their faces were melting off. It was obvious - from when it intercepted the telepathy link - that the creature had some control over mental magics, or some other ability along those lines, so it wasn't a stretch to think he was controlling these monstrosities. Or perhaps it had something to do with the inky liquid that had been raging through the town?

Whatever the case, that control had been shaken by something.

Hopefully Master Ghodi was wrecking the bastard back in the mountains.

Without having to worry about the black liquid, Nathan wouldn't have to keep throwing out the larger spells to push it all back, so he backed up a couple steps and formed the spell for a _Spear of Skanda_ , substituting his own energy for the usual Eldritch variety. What appeared in his hand looked sort of what he imagined Zeus's lightning bolt would look like; a blue, seven-foot length of sparkling energy. One of the best parts about this particular spell was that the entire thing was an incredibly sharp blade except for where he chose to hold it. Useful for wrecking things at a distance, but a little lacking in defense. It probably wasn't the best fit for someone that was barely four feet tall, but the thing literally weighed nothing, and Nathan could fly, so…

One of the creatures, easily the largest at about two meters tall, seemed to be shaking off the after effects of the wraith's control faster than the rest. Nathan couldn't really be sure, as the creature's whole existence was _blurry,_ but it appeared to have one large eye and the mouth of a piranha, which sat on a heap of tentacles.

Actually, the more he looked, the harder it was to tell where one creature ended and another started. At first glance, he could point out several masses of limbs and tentacles, which he had been assuming were individuals, but after staring at a couple of the masses for longer than a second - an effort that left him with a headache - he could point out separate bodies that were just piled on top of eachother, with no uniformity at all.

Some were just foot-long tubes with scaly hides, where others were vaguely humanoid with fins for arms. There was even a couple floating eyeballs with teeth instead of irises. Speaking of eyes, they were placed anywhere and everywhere without any thought towards symmetry or usefulness; for example, one of the monsters that was mostly teeth opened its gaping maw, only to reveal a giant, bleeding eye on the left side of its tongue - like it was having trouble keeping the eye away from its teeth. Some had twelve, others; none. There was literally no measurable pattern between them.

Nathan turned his thoughts away from trying to understand them. It was an exercise in futility, and only served to enhance his headache. Instead, the seven-year-old readied his spear and used his energy to launch himself towards the nearest abomination before they all got their bearings. Getting in close, he swung the weapon down, bisecting the creature and spraying a black inky liquid… wait a minute.

Was all that ink from before… blood?

Well shit, that's just gross. These things bleed _black?_ Eugh.

Anyway, the previously confronted creature's two halves started to spasm before bursting like a popped balloon, spilling more of that black blood onto the street, which promptly did its part in dying the splattered surfaces black like the flood had done before. Nathan took care in not getting any of it on himself.

It was at this point that the other creatures locked their attention on Nathan, having finally shook themselves free of whatever control they had been under. Nathan pushed off the ground, floating quickly away to avoid a swipe of a tentacle, then had to duck and dodge around the massive maw of another creature as it tried to have him for a mid-afternoon snack.

Halfway through the dodge, the floating seven-year-old threw his spear, piercing through the attacking creature, which also shuddered, and popped like a balloon. Before the spear hit the ground on the other side, though, Nathan clenched his fist, stopping it in mid air. He then proceeded to make a hand sign, not unlike Spider Man's classic web-shooting sign, and swung his arm while twisting his wrist, which sent the spear soaring through the hoard of monsters, spinning madly the whole way.

The _Spear of Skanda_ was easily his favorite conjured weapon so far, as it could do exactly as he was using it for currently. Most weapons required direct contact with the user, as the user's body was a 'gate' of sorts that fed the weapon power, allowing it to exhibit whatever specialty it had. This spear however, was one of the few exceptions, meaning that its special ability _was_ the fact that it could separate from the user, and be controlled from a distance. Effectively making it a magic lightning rod of doom, attached to an invisible, sentient string that Nathan used to control it.

When Nathan was tasked to figure out a combat style that worked for him, he was forced to consider his current size. Meaning that it would probably be best to figure out how to fight from a medium-ish distance, rather than up close. If he was honest with himself though, fisticuffs were never going to be his style anyway. He had gotten the spear spell down a few months ago with little difficulty, but was having trouble with some of the hand-signs that would control it from a distance. Masters of the spell didn't need them, but as a beginner they were necessary. In the ancient Hindu text that he learned it from, written by the spell's creator, a man by the name of Skanda, told tales of _armies_ falling to the use of this singular spell. Skanda, who was revered as a War God, could summon nearly a hundred of the things and control them with ease over an entire battlefield. Nathan was currently limited to the one, and could barely control its flight with any meaningful accuracy within half a football field's worth of space.

His original plan when coming up with a general strategy, was to use as many of the spears as possible, then defend with the Tao Mandalas while floating around above his enemies. Obviously he was nowhere near that good at multitasking yet.

Thankfully, these creatures were kind-of stupid. If Nathan had to guess, these were just the dregs, or something similar to chained wolves that were left to starve, then sicced on whatever the Wraith chose to let them at. They weren't exactly difficult to handle, as seen by the fact that they popped whenever his spear so much as grazed them. Or maybe that was an effect of the different energy source?

All the same, Nathan didn't fancy being an early dinner.

Trying to save even the smallest amount of energy, Nathan kept to floating just a foot or so off the ground as he ducked and weaved through the masses, calling his spear back to his hand, and throwing it, rather than having it dart around on its own. As it was, his reserves were steadily draining, but he would be able to keep up the pace for a little while yet. Thank Stan- _fucking-_ Lee these things weren't that hard to kill. They weren't that fast, so it wasn't too hard to dodge around, but they were strong - thrashing around, ripping and pounding up the surroundings like no normal living creature could - and their blood was creepy as hell. Definitely wasn't going to let any of that get on him.

Nathan continued like that for… well, he wasn't sure how long. Time is a difficult thing to measure when your body is being pumped so full of adrenaline that you can track the movement of a hummingbird's wings.

That wasn't even an exaggeration. One of the creatures had wings that resembled one, attached to an eye, and nothing else. Seriously, though; what the _hell_ was with these things and their creepy 'eye' theme?

Nathan had managed to gather the attention of the entire swarm of creatures, making it so the others wouldn't have trouble getting away, but he really hoped they would _move their asses._

Thankfully, just as he finally got around to stabbing that damned hummingbird-eye thing, a large wave of golden force whipped around him, obliterating the remaining creatures, and leaving him a little wind-swept.

Nathan let out a breath and released his spear spell before dropping down to the ground on his ass, leaning back on his arms.

"'Bout time!" Nathan laughed without turning around. "I'm pretty sure Master Ghodi is still fighting the Wraith." He rose an arm, pointing down the street towards the mountains. "That-a-way."

"Thank you Nathan." The voice of the Ancient One began. "Master Gerand, Master Yuuki, please go on ahead and relieve Master Ghodi. I'll be there shortly."

Not bothering to respond, both individuals passed by Nathan at a dead sprint.

"I see you managed to get your energy and magical formulae to work together."

Nathan tilted his head backwards, peering at the lady as she walked towards him. "Well, what can I say? I'm pretty awesome."

She smiled. "I'm sure you are. Tell me, are you able to make it back alone? I'm afraid an Angled Wraith is a bit out of your pay-grade."

The seven-year-old waved her off, and laid down fully. "Yeah I got it. Go kick ass, boss-lady."

She chuckled as she passed him. "Go home, Nathan. You've done well."

Nathan blinked as he watched her quickly make her way down the street.

"'Home', huh?" He smiled and stumbled to his feet, mumbling to himself. "Didn't know I had one of those anymore."

* * *

 **A/N**

Alright, I've done an absolutely obscene amount of thinking and planning in regards to the power development and descriptions of most abilities. I've essentially got an in-depth explanation of how the various magical forces of the Marvel universe work. I broke it down into the rules that everything follows. I'm afraid that the next chapter might just be a bunch more exposition and explanations of certain aspects of it… I'll try to limit that, and include some more action to break up the boring. I'll be sure to break it down over time though - as it fits with the story and Nathan's progression. It turns out though, that I _will,_ in fact, be using 'Life Energy' quite heavily in this fic; as most of my explanations fall back on it (Refer to the explanation in the ending A/N of Chapter 1).

On those lines, you can look forward to a more in-depth dive into 'Chi' than Nathan has already done. Suffice it to say, he was wrong in his earlier assumptions.

Now this explanation to come will obviously not include and explain _everything,_ as I have not read all of the comics that exist. Perhaps it will contradict some explanations in Canon, but it makes sense in my head for what I have researched, and can try to fit all of it into my explanation. There will be outliers that get their abilities in different ways.

All of this will be according to my head-canon. I fully expect and support all of your criticisms of my explanations. I want to make it work _correctly,_ if possible.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

I know, I know, my update schedule is rancid wale shit. Sorry, not sorry. I'm busy.

 **I'm going to rant for a second, feel free to ignore me and my opinions** : I've been looking for another story to tide me over, but nearly _half_ of them are about love/lust stories with goddamn Loki. Half-again of those are the gayest, rainbow-infested, wet dreams of preteen, hormonal little monsters. I have nothing against those, though; this _is_ fanfiction, but for _fuck's_ sake calm your tits, people. There's too much of one damn concept, and for some reason everyone focused in on one of the most annoying characters in all of Marvel. I mean he acts like a 15 y/o girl with daddy issues. He's killed thousands of innocent people, so at some point we need to collectively _stop_ telling ourselves that he's 'misunderstood'. Basically, we could use some originality in the romance department. Stop pairing everyone and their mother with Loki, Black Widow, _fucking_ Bucky (he's at least better than Loki), and Capt. America. Give the other characters some love. Open those creative gates. Find another character you can identify with, or understand, and see where that takes you.

Basically, just _fucking stop it_ with Loki.  
 **/rant**

Most of this chapter is a build-up for a slightly large time-skip, then some actual skipping of time. I'm trying to get us out of the current arc, but my fingers keep. Fucking. Typing.

I swear, I have no control where this goes anymore. Every scene writes itself. I keep coming up with plot points, character traits, dialogue, NEW FUCKING OC CHARACTERS, on the fly, and they just show up when I'm editing like, "Where the fu- oh right, I remember writing that, but why is it so long? Why does that explanation have so much to do with how the plot in chapters 14-23 is supposed to work out? Why did I include a detail about a cat throwing up? Deleting _that_ right now."

I can't delete it all either, because I flip around the future outline of the story as I fill in details. I am driving myself insane.

Anyway, there's a _lot_ of little stuff happening in this chapter. A couple bigger things too, but mostly little stuff.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

The absolute first thing that Nathan did when he returned to the temple was make more Oricalcum accessories. Well, technically it was the second thing, as he had to stop by the Time Stone and pull the ambient energy from it to refill his own stores first. _Then_ he sat down and slowly formed six, thin bangles using his Celestial energy, which he slipped around his wrists. Three on each arm. Each bangle could store about twice the amount of energy than one of his rings. Each ring could store about ten times the amount that he could store in his body, meaning that functionally, he now had a 'tank' that could store over 160 times his base amount of energy: four times what he had on the mission.

He would have made more, but just those six rings had taken as many hours to create. Really, he was just exhausted, but that's not why he stopped.

"Nathan, correct?"

Said seven-year-old looked up from filling one of his new bangles with energy, to find the oldest female student that had gone on the previous mission. It was nearing midnight, and was honestly surprised that she was even awake. Most of the students were decidedly in the 'early to bed; early to rise' category.

Nathan nodded. "That's m'name."

She bowed slightly - _very_ slightly. "I realize we never introduced ourselves. My name is Isabelle." She finished the thought with a small smile. "I would like to thank you; it was due to your actions that we were able to escape this afternoon."

Nathan's ears detected a rather heavy French accent from the woman; something he hadn't picked up before. Though granted, she hadn't said much until this point.

He shrugged it off. "No worries. I imagine you would have done the same, if able."

Her mouth twitched into a barely perceivable frown, but it disappeared almost as soon as Nathan noticed it.

"Speaking of that," she began, "you mentioned that it was through the use of Chi that you and Master Ghodi were able to fight off the Wraith and its thralls, correct?"

"Well I'm almost certain that's what Master Ghodi and the other Masters were using, yes."

"But not you?"

Nathan shook his head. "I am not one-hundred percent _human._ " Noticing the guarded look she gave him, he continued, "The Ancient One is fully aware of my heritage. I'm here to learn and help protect everything just like the rest of you."

"Then why bring it up?"

"Well the half of me that isn't human has access to a certain type of energy. Energy that can mimic aspects of Chi - or at least can be used interchangeably. I'll admit that I only learned that during the fight back there, but I can do a few things with it that we can't do with other sources."

Realization shone in her eyes. "So that's how you are able to fly then?"

"Well, 'flying' is a bit difficult, but yes. Using my personal brand of energy, I am able to produce a sort-of 'thrust' that lets me float around - that's an oversimplification, but still kinda accurate. Takes a _lot_ more energy to go at any respectable speed or height, though."

"That still seems rather convenient."

The ex-Ravager laughed. "I'm not disagreeing with you."

She tilted her head with a frowned brow. "Might I ask what the second half of your heritage is, then?"

Nathan smirked. "Space god."

She blinked. "What?"

Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but closed it after a second and waved the question away. "Not really that important, nor easy to explain."

She frowned again, but nodded and dropped the subject. "To be honest, none of us really expected much from you during that outing. We were informed that we were to be joined by another student, but none of us were entirely useful our first time. We expected to have to protect you." She tilted her head slightly. "I must say I was surprised that the exact opposite occurred."

Nathan shook his head with a wry smile. "Please, under any other circumstance I'm sure you all would have easily outdone me."

"And humble too." She quirked an eyebrow, keeping the smile.

"I assure you it's just a formality." The seven-year-old smirked.

Her smile widened. "Oh? So you wouldn't be adverse to a spar, then?"

Nathan fake gasped. "You would hit a child? For shame!"

"Oh please, I am well aware of your true age. The incident with the Eye was rather well gossiped."

"Ruin my _all_ my fun, why don't you?" The boy pouted.

She huffed in laughter. "Well the offer to spar is true. In fact, us five tend to get together a couple times each week to do just zat." Her accent peeked through. "You are welcome to join us if you wish."

Nathan looked up, interested. "Really? I haven't seen any of you around in the two years I've been here. Where do you go?"

"Mongolia." She replied simply. "Xiang… We really do need to do introductions; while traveling northern Asia, he found a relatively secluded spot that we tend to meet at. It is rather beautiful there."

Nathan nodded a couple times, thinking it over. "Sounds fun. Thanks for the invitation."

She nodded back in acknowledgement before a note of realization shone in her eyes. "Ah, though I am glad I was able to thank you in person, I am here for an actual reason. The Ancient One has requested your presence when convenient."

Nathan sighed. "You probably should have lead with that."

She chuckled. "My apologies."

* * *

After making his new bangles fit a little better on his wrists, placing the Time Stone back in the Eye, and asking Master Haman to close it, Nathan made his way up towards the Ancient One's study: the room where he was first brought when he arrived.

The 'secretary' on rotation this time was one of the newer students; one that Nathan had actually took time to tutor every once in a while. Her name was Julia Redman, a Mexican-American college student and total hippie. She was on a study-abroad trip in Kathmandu when she stumbled across Kamar-Taj and decided to stay. She was also one of the first potential students that the Boss-Lady sent to him for further character testing / actual mentoring - Nathan still wasn't sure which was expected of him. It took her all of seven seconds after they first met to completely ignore his physical age, _and_ she reminded him of his mother, so needless to say; he liked her.

"Nathan!" She greeted with a wide smile.

"Jules." He greeted back with a similar smile. "Good morning."

The hippie groaned. "You're not allowed to say that. It's like one A.M."

The little gremlin chuckled. "You get used to it." Nathan had to pull his own time as the glorified doorstop. It was supposed to teach a lesson in humility, and taking one's time with their studies. He never _learned_ that lesson, but whatever. "I heard the Ancient One wanted to see me?"

She nodded. "Yup. Go on in." She palmed the door and slid it open for him.

"Thanks Jules."

She smiled back.

Walking into the study, Nathan noticed the Sorcerer Supreme meditating on the… air. Just kind-of floating there in the middle of the room.

"Okay, you have _got_ to teach me how you do that."

"Nathan, you can already fly." She responded, deadpan; without breaking concentration.

Somehow.

He waved his little arms. "Yeah, but not when I'm meditating! Multitasking is _hard!"_ He paused. "Also, how are you doing that exactly? I thought you needed an artefact to float around?"

The yellow-garbed woman sighed and untucked her legs; setting her feet down on the floor and walked back to her desk.

"Levitation is a complex spell, true, but hardly requires a crutch. Full flight is different though. Even I am unable to do that without a tool." She stopped at the tea tray and picked up a couple of cups. "As for multitasking, it will come in time. All you need is practice."

Pouring herself and Nathan a cup of tea, she sat down and gestured to the chair across from her.

Taking the hint, Nathan pulled himself into the seat. "So why, in the name of all that's holy, did you call me here in the wee hours of the morning?"

She snorted into her teacup. "Please, we both know you were still awake."

"It's the principle of the thing." He responded, dripping a glob of honey in his own cup and stirring it around.

Rolling her eyes, she set her cup down, still cradled in her hands. "A few things actually. First, I wanted to speak with you about what happened earlier today; see how you're holding up. I'm not sure what you've experienced outside of Earth's atmosphere, but as far as I know this is the first time you've had to fight with your life on the line."

Nathan nodded. "Well I can tell you this _wasn't_ my first time. Space-pirating isn't exactly safe. Especially for children." He finished in a mumble.

It was true too. The first time, in both of his lives, that he had to _legitimately_ fight for his life was a bit of a shell-shock. The Ravagers might have been relatively good to him as a whole, but they had their bad eggs. One such egg was a newer recruit that was being trained up at the same time as himself and Peter during his first year on their ship. He was the same physical age as Nathan, had just been saved from abusive parents, and dropped into an entirely new life of crime. The kid wasn't human, but the anatomy was close. A head, two legs, two arms, red blood, etcetera. He seemed alright at first, but it didn't take long until something made him snap.

Peter and the kid had fricken _hated_ each other. Got on each other's nerves to the point where their 'spars' became outright brawls ninety percent of the time. Nathan had been ignoring it completely - that is, until the kid had enough of Peter beating him into the ground. Nathan wasn't really a fighter back then; much more into his job as a mechanic than anything else, so he was noted as the weaker link. Peter's soft spot.

One day, the kid cornered Nathan and locked them both in an airlock, as they were one of the few places on the ship with bolt-locked doors. The kid, of course had the access code to that particular door, so he could get back out, but Nathan…

The kid ran a fucking monologue, bragging about how his death would cause Peter pain, and knew Nathan couldn't take him in a fight from the few spars they'd had before. He had gone completely off the deep end, laughing hysterically while twisting the skin of his own wrists to the point of friction burn, and had passively torn off his own fingernails while scratching at his belt buckle.

Nathan had his ass handed to him. Beaten and bloody, he had tried to defend himself. He really did, but the kid had spent all his time fighting, where Nathan hadn't. It wasn't even _close_ to fair.

Nathan didn't know where the kid had gotten a plasma torch, but he still had the scar: a four-inch wide, discolored, and jagged trench on the left side of his chest. Even now, in his younger, child body, the scar was still there. An ever-present reminder of the first person he was forced to kill. He wasn't sure why - or how - it was still there, but it probably had something to do with how his mind stayed in-tact as well after the Time-Stone fiasco. He didn't really want to think about it.

The only reason he was still alive was because the kid didn't know about the small serrated knife that Nathan kept on his utility belt for cutting wires. It was kind of dull, but it did the job. It took more than one swing, since the blade was so small, but his attacker was a kid; it wasn't like it was _hard_ to hit an artery.

He managed to get out of the airlock by opening a service panel and rewiring the door controls, all-the-while ignoring the mutilated body behind him. If he was honest with himself, flushing the body out into space was the easiest thing he'd ever done.

Peter never did ask where the blood came from, even through the weird looks as he patched up the plasma burn and bruises for his brother, nor did he ask what happened to the kid. For that matter, none of the other Ravagers did either, but that didn't mean Nathan slept well for the next few months. He had an inkling that someone shared around the security footage, but nothing ever came of it outside of J'gaar, his mechanic boss, being a little nicer than usual.

He _still_ didn't know the kid's name.

Since then he'd had to fight a few more times; even had to kill. The Ravager ship had gotten raided once by a rival pirate gang, and a few other odd skirmishes during their own raids, but never anything like that first time. Never anything so _personal._ Even getting assassinated in his previous life was mild compared to that. Clean, fast, and professional.

The Ancient One 'hmmed'. "I suppose not." She leaned forward, peering into his eyes. "I _am_ willing to listen, Nathan. I have no doubt that was a rough life."

Nathan waved her off. "I'm living with it. Don't forget I've got over sixty years of experience. Plenty more good times than bad."

"That doesn't mean they even out."

"Even so, the fact that you care enough to ask is enough. Thank you." He said sincerely, looking her back in the eyes. "I mean it."

She gave him a flat, worried smile. "The offer is still on the table regardless."

Nathan smiled back tiredly. "You said there were a _few_ reasons you called me over?"

Sighing, she nodded, and leaned back in her chair. "The second point is that we managed to defeat the Angled Wraith, but we're still not sure how it slipped into this plane, nor are we sure exactly what happened to the population of the town. I will be suggesting a few specific tomes that you look over for preparation."

The seven-year-old tilted his head to the side. "I'll be dealing with them in the future then?"

"It's a possibility, one that was so small before this afternoon that I had, unfortunately, been ignoring in favor of the more likely outcomes."

"You ignored something? That's a bit out of character."

"Oh shush. I cannot hope to commit every _possible_ future to memory. I have only seen a mere twelve-or-so million of the infinite potential outcomes. Out of those, _these_ events only occurred a handful of times, but now that they have, they open the doors to even worse things."

Nathan threw his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I get it. So what do you expect me to do?"

"There is still a chance nothing will come of it, but I don't want you out of your depth if the Sunken City dwellers return. At that time, you may be one of the most able to defend against it." She reached into the drawer of her desk, and pulled out a tattered, bound journal. "This was written by a man who received visions, has even claimed to have seen the City itself, and interacted with the beings there. I personally don't put much stock in the latter bits, but the tales are accurate to what we know of R'lyeh. I suggest you see Master Haman in the Library. He can point you at the more… reputable sources."

She slid the journal over to him, which he belatedly realized was probably the first draft of a novel when he caught the title.

"Oh, you've _got_ to be shitting me."

The Ancient One blinked. "What?"

"Well, Um…" Nathan just sat there, staring at the journal for a solid minute. "' _The Call of Cthulhu' i_ s a book in my own home universe. H.P. Lovecraft is a well known horror author there." He paused again before mumbling, "I _thought_ all those things seemed familiar."

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"You're telling me that you know of these creatures?"

" _Of_ them, yes." Nathan confirmed. "The fact that they actually exist, though? That's some serious nightmare fuel."

"I am unsure whether that is a boon or not. Do you already know how to deal with them?"

The boy shook his head. "I figured out today that they block off access to most of our energy sources, but that Chi and my own energy can be used as a good substitute. Further than that? No. I never actually got around to reading it before, but there was a _lot_ of media that used it for inspiration. I'll read up on it."

"Good enough for now." She took another sip of her tea. "There are a few specific spells and techniques that are more effective than what you were using, but we can go over those at leisure. What I'm curious about is how you managed to use your personal brand of energy to power standard, Eldritch spells?"

Nathan sat up a little straighter. "To be honest it wasn't difficult at all. That one time we tried, we were trying to blend my energy with the Eldritch ones. I'm still not sure if that is possible, but using them _alone_ seems to be feasible enough." He ran a hand through his hair, contemplative. "It was almost like pulling from the other sources, but with no restrictions on the spell usage. _I_ was the one granting permission." He stressed.

That was the thing about pulling from extra-dimensional beings, deities, and other sentient sources of magic: they were picky. Their energy could only really be used in ways that those beings were familiar with. Often times, their specific abilities had parallels in the standard Eldritch line-up, but they were far stronger. In rare cases, they could be _hundreds_ of times more effective than Eldritch spells.

That's just the territory, though. They might be stronger, but they always came with a drawback. Equal and opposite return, give and take, the Natural Law. There were plenty of ways to say that everything had a price, and without fail; the stronger of the sources _always_ required the worst prices.

This is what appeared to be happening with Nathan's own energy, though. It was easily recognized as an external source, according to the magical formulae, meaning all Nathan had to do was add it directly to the spell, and it would take.

Easy.

Previously, they had assumed it worked similar to Chi. Which is tangentially different in that it _can_ be used for just about every standard spell, however it is insanely difficult to use _alone;_ which is why the standard practice is to combine it with the Eldritch energies. The similarities between his own energy and Chi were obvious, so it wasn't _too_ far off to try and use them interchangeably.

They were wrong, of course, but hey. He was there to learn, right?

The Ancient One understood all of that without having to be walked through it, though. It was just the continuation of an older conversation.

"Well alright. We can work with that." She set her, now empty, cup back on the tea tray and stood from her desk. "Now for the main reason I wanted to see you."

Nathan cocked his head. "We going somewhere?"

"You've proven yourself capable today, Nathan." She smirked. "I wanted to walk you through our relic collection. See if anything jumps out at you."

The seven-year-old's eyes widened, and he was out of his seat in an instant. "Lead the way, Boss-Lady." He said with a giddy smile.

* * *

There were _hundreds_ of artifacts and relics in each of the three Sanctums. Nathan and the Ancient One had spent a solid three hours just walking through the Hong Kong, London, and New York collections before they found one that reacted to Nathan. The Sorcerer Supreme had explained that she didn't really expect one of the artifacts to respond to him, as it _was_ a fairly rare occurrence that one of the powerful objects chose a holder.

'Choosing' was probably not the right term, as only a few of the objects had any sort of sentience, but they would _react_ to someone that resembled their creator; be it moral alignment, ideals, ability, personality, or even smell in one case. A shrunken head of a monkey that could speak and smell? Nope. Nathan was perfectly fine when he wasn't chosen by that thing. Point was, each artifact was different, and would react to something different.

In most cases, they would have had to do this again every year or so before something took a liking to him. Of course, he could use any of these objects if he studied the method, however there was just something special about the bond between a relic and its chosen. It would always be a slight bit more effective in their hands.

There were swords, spears, shields, and plenty of other weaponry. There were various forms of clothing, accessories, and even a collection of clay, or metal jars, boxes, and trinkets. However none of that even tingled in Nathan's presence, and he felt nothing in return.

That is, until they came across an unassuming glass case in a corner of the New York Sanctum. It was utterly _filled_ with vines, and seemed to be trying to overtake the glass it was trapped in. That being the case, there was no outward sign that reacted to Nathan. No, there was something more… Spiritual about it.

A heartbeat. A single, energizing, heartbeat is what drew Nathan's attention to the glass box. A thump that resounded across his entire body, and made his vision blur for a split second.

The moment he stopped and stared at the little glass case, the Ancient One smiled. "Ah. I think we've found it."

Nathan, still a bit out of it, just made a small grunt in the back of his throat.

"I think you'll appreciate this one more than most." She smiled down at him with a bit of mischief. "I, myself, had some fun with it a few centuries ago."

At this point, the tiny wizard had a pretty good idea what was behind the glass. "What's it called?"

"The _Pupillam Vitae,_ or _-"_

"The Apple of Life." He interrupted, still in a slight trance. What? He knew Latin now, why wouldn't he use it?

Taking a step toward the case, he placed a hand on the glass and watched as the vines slowly receded, revealing a _perfect,_ red apple.

His artifact was a fucking _apple._

Magical produce, of all things.

Coming up behind him, the Ancient One placed a finger on the glass and drew a small circle with a triangle in the center. Immediately the glass shimmered and disappeared, allowing Nathan to reach in and grab the apple.

"There are a few known magical apples." The woman started. "I personally have seen two: this one, and the Apple of Eden. The third that I know of is the Golden Apple of Idunn on Asgard."

Nathan blinked, slowly looking up to the woman. "You've seen the Apple of Eden. From the Tree of Knowledge." What?

She shrugged. "I've eaten one. They really don't live up to the name, unfortunately." She smiled down at her student. "They don't actually give you any amount of 'knowledge', but they open the mind to understanding. Meaning that if you find yourself intellectually stuck in a rut, they are quite nice for a… 'Eureka' moment, if you will." She cringed slightly. "Though I've seen what happens when someone eats more than one. It's not pretty."

Nope. Not getting into that. Too much ' _what the fuck_ ' in too few sentences. The Garden of Eden apparently existed, which was a can of worms Nathan was _not_ going to open willingly.

"So," the ex-Ravager changed the topic, "What can this little guy do?"

"Well, for one, it's an infinite food source."

"Heh?"

"Normally, one would give it a drop of Chi, and it would sprout a whole apple tree where it sits. The amount of Chi controls the size of the tree." She looked down at the apple, then back to Nathan. "Though you might be able to use your own energy instead."

"What happens if, you know, I eat the whole thing?"

She smirked. "Well, lets just say, ' _don't,_ ' and leave it at that. However, as long as you have a single seed in hand, you can regrow the tree and pluck another from its branches. At that point, the tree will deteriorate rapidly, leaving only the apple you take still whole so you can repeat the process." She paused. "Only one apple can exist off the tree at any given time, but the apple that spawned it doesn't count. So say you eat half the apple, then throw it; that half you ate will still exist in your stomach even after you pluck a new one."

"That's convenient. What if I cut the apple in half, and put Chi into both halves?"

She shrugged. "Then you'll have two trees, but as soon as you take an apple from one, the other will also fall apart."

Nathan nodded to himself. "Can it do anything else?"

She shook her head. "It's not that diverse a relic, though if you have enough control, you can direct how the tree grows. In the past, I've thrown it at enemies, and trapped them within its roots. I've also used it to hold up a collapsing building once or twice." She shrugged. "Though, I should mention the tree itself is innately immune to mortal fire, and highly resistant to energy-based attacks. The more Chi you give it, the stronger it will be."

"Neat." Nathan said, turning the apple around in his hand. 'Mortal fire' basically meant normal fire. If the fire was magical, or divine in nature, that would probably be a different story, but the 'highly resistant to energy based attacks' bit meant that it wasn't a bad choice of shield either way.

The Ancient One flicked a finger, spawning a small, orange, Eldritch circle. Nathan recognized it as a basic time-management spell. "Well, it's nearly five in the morning. How do you feel about going to sleep? You can give the apple a try when you wake up, and I'd also like to see how it responds to your 'Celestial energy,' as you call it."

The mere mention of sleep brought a yawn out of him. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

* * *

The morning after found Nathan waking up just before noon, and the rest of the day was spent just messing with the _Pupillam Vitae._

As it turns out, his Celestial Energy worked just fine as a growth catalyst for the thing, and even slightly enhanced the tree's general strength against most external forces. Meaning it was about as strong as solid steel, rather than wood.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, he'd tried dumping his entire reserves into the thing, just to see how large he could make the resultant tree.

Four hundred-ish feet was a bit of a daunting height when he had to fly up and retrieve a new apple. He also had to help repair the courtyard a bit afterwards.

After that, he figured out controlled growth.

He could, from a single seed, make vines instead of a full tree, which he ended up using as a belt with the new apple hanging off the side. He had to figure out how to beef up the stem of the thing though, as just a little movement would cause it to fly off. Apples aren't really that firmly attached to their trees, normally.

Outside of the magic aspect, the apple tasted _amazing._ Easily the sweetest fruit he had ever eaten. It had the perfect amount of crunch, and was juicy, but didn't drip all over you when you took a bite.

Did Nathan mention that he likes fruit? No? Well he does. It's like healthy candy, and who doesn't like candy?

Well anyway, after getting comfortable with his new relic, Nathan started to exclusively use his own energy when training his magic. It was a bit harder to incorporate into his spells than the standard Eldritch energies, but that's why he trained it that way. It would be easier to use the standard spells, and in a pinch, he would have no issue using his own, more powerful fuel. After a couple months, he was able to use his entire repertoire of spells with his Celestial energy, became significantly more adept at using the _Spear of Skanda,_ and the number of skills he had access to was only growing as he read, listened, and learned more.

Nathan did end up going along with Isabelle to join the others in Mongolia, as well. They met for a few hours about three times a week and offered general combat-related tips, and helped each other figure out ways to deal with issues. It was in these meetings that he started to get a bit of a handle on Chi.

Yes, he had Chi, apparently. It wasn't just overshadowed by his Celestial energy, like he had previously assumed. This little tidbit was pointed out by Master Ghodi, actually.

Master Ghodi was the foremost expert on Chi within the walls of Kamar-Taj - even counting the Ancient One. Yes, she could do _more_ with it, having millennia to practice and put learned skills to use, but Master Ghodi was the one who had the innate, hereditary control over the power.

Apparently, an absolutely absurd amount of time ago, Master Ghodi's ancestors were _dragon hunters._ Now, if your mind immediately jumps to the Iron Fist, you're actually on the right track. These dragons were originally from an alternate dimension, if you can believe it, where they lived in rather large communities. Some of which had managed to get through to Earth in that time, doing so via a 'Gate' of sorts that could be opened somewhere in China.

Master Ghodi's ancestors were apparently _from_ this dimension, living in a city by the name of K'un-Lun. They had spent the majority of their lives as warriors and defenders that would challenge those dragons, defeat them, and gorge themselves on the meat in celebration. Which is significant because those dragons were basically _made_ of Chi. They had so much of it that the oldest among them were monstrous creatures the size of mountains, had lifespans that long surpassed all other non-deity beings, and had the casual strength to destroy continents.

Master Ghodi's family history was not unique because they fought the dragons. No, they were unique because they _ate_ the remains of the giant lizards that they managed to defeat. Sure the dragons that fell were among the weaker part of the species, but they still had more Chi in one body than all of Humanity had combined.

Eating, and basking in their remains had _changed_ his family. They soon realized that feasting on dragon meat had an invigorating effect. Swallowing the marrow of their bones made their own skeletons denser, and more sturdy. Bathing in their blood rejuvenated the flesh and enhanced longevity.

Then there was the kicker: eating the heart of a dragon.

This was like all the other effects combined, only afterwards, those that digested the heart would start to glow with a golden sheen. Their lifespans were significantly extended, and their strength was enhanced to the point of taking on other dragons single-handedly, whereas before they would lose hundreds of lives against just one of the creatures. Soon enough, Master Ghodi's ancestors, along with other leading families within K'un-Lun figured out plenty of uses for the golden glow. They found this energy could be focused and used in various ways; the leading of which happened to be healing, along with short releases of explosive power.

'Chi' is what this energy was called on Earth. People at all corners of the planet had also learned how to use it to varying degrees, but never to the bulldozing effect that the men and women in K'un-Lun accomplished. Most humans would never achieve the pure amount of Chi that could be gained by cooking up a _dragon_ , after all.

At this point, sorcerers had been born on Earth. Groups of people that could control mystical energies to bend the fabric of reality. In their own studies, they had learned to combine the effects of Chi into their magic, enhancing it beyond all limitations. Some of which had even been noted as _gods_ for this show of utter power. Take Skanda for example; the man who invented Nathan's favorite spear spell. The man was an Indian warlord, and his name had gone down in history as a god of war.

Master Ghodi though, was only a descendant of these people that had since immigrated to Earth. He, himself, had not consumed the heart of a dragon, but the abundance of Chi was in his blood, and its uses passed down through the generations.

Outside of the Ancient One, Master Ghodi was the powerhouse of Kamar-Taj, and their resident master of Chi. The Sorcerer Supreme had found him in his youth, and brought him in to help round out a less studied aspect of the universe, namely how Chi interacts with magical formulas, and ended up with a major resource.

Now, all of that is important because Master Ghodi had attended one of the Mongolia meet-ups at the request of Anthony, another member of the combat group - the one that was jealous of Nathan's ability to fly. Nathan and the others had been attempting to train themselves in the uses of Chi, and had pretty much found nothing. So they asked for some help.

Master Ghodi had been walking among them, tapping their foreheads, and sending a spark of Chi into their systems when Nathan _exploded._ Or rather, the area around him did. Master Ghodi weathered it like a champ, of course, only widening his eyes slightly and finding better footing on the broken ground. The others, though, had all been blown a few feet away.

The pure bursting energy of Nathan's own Chi had awoken at that point. Well, 'awoken' might not be the best term for the experience; more like 'discovered'. The point was that he could feel it inside of him now, but he found it stupidly difficult to use in any way. More so than the others, for sure. He easily had more of it than Master Ghodi. Like hundreds of thousands, if not _millions_ of times more than his teacher, but its use was restricted somehow. He couldn't access it in the same way the others could. In fact, the method he used for accessing his Celestial energy was incredibly similar to the normal method for accessing Chi. It just seemed that there was something inherently different with how his being was made up.

After several months of deliberating with his peers, the Ancient One, and Master Ghodi, he _did_ finally find the method to direct it, but it was near useless in the Mystic Arts for him.

To direct it, he had to pair it with his Celestial energy and ease it from his core. Doing so looked very much akin to the blue energy tentacles that Ego used in the Guardians Two movie. Using these 'Chi Tentacles', Nathan was able to directly interact with the Chi stores of his peers, rejuvenating, or stealing from their supply, however that was pretty much the extent of it. While carrying his Chi through his Celestial energy, if he tried to add the combination to a spell, the formula would just _crash._ The spell would fall apart, and Nathan, Master Ghodi, and even the Sorcerer Supreme had no inkling as to why.

It seemed Nathan had found the method his father employed to use Peter as a 'battery', though, so that was something. Also, Master Ghodi, his peers, and the Ancient One's faces were absolutely priceless when they found out the extent of his Chi stores.

From there, years passed by. Isabelle and the next oldest of the combat group, Xiang, had both been granted the title of 'Master' along the line somewhere, and due to their study sessions and extra training, no one had died on any of their missions outside Kamar-Taj's walls. Their little combat group had actually grown to include a few others as well. Nathan himself had gone on at least one trip every week, sometimes having to help channel excess dimensional energies into the aether from some freak, minor convergence, or fighting off rogue sorcerers and creatures from various reality-bending, bullshit dimensions.

At one point, he literally punted an honest-to-god leprechaun into an active volcano. Yes, the little fucker deserved it, and yes, he _did_ have a large pot of gold, but _no,_ he didn't wear green, nor did he have red hair. He was about two feet tall, and looked more like a yellow-ish goblin, to be honest.

The point being, Nathan was now considered an _experienced_ member of Kamar-Taj. He was respected among the students, and was routinely asked for advice, or help with random experiments. After five years, 2004 was just a few days away, and Nathan was now about twelve. Of that time, he had spent nearly every waking moment improving some skill, or ability. You might think that would be a bit unreasonable, but that was honestly just the culture of the community. Everybody was obsessed with learning at the temple, with figuring out new ways to bend their reality to their whim, and in the case of the combat 'clique', absorbed in trying to protect the planet. The sense of 'duty' was strong with those that had it, and it only grew as their peers became friends.

Nathan's idea of a 'break' was to spar with his combat group, portal over to France for a fancy breakfast, go into the Astral plane and screw around with the local's electronics, or maybe play a game of Magic Jeopardy - a game that Julia had come up with a few years back. In the game, each magical discipline was a category. It was primarily educational, of course, and followed standard Jeopardy format. The game was honestly pretty fun, especially since The Sorcerer Supreme was the one picking the topics every time they played. She was using it as a way to gauge the students' progress, no doubt, but even the Masters had a blast playing.

Who'da thunk Kamar-Taj would have a routine Game Night every Friday? They had started using an old ruin of a Greek amphitheater in Eastern Sicily due to the sheer volume of people, and were forced to start a raffle to see who the contestants would be for the same reason.

Julia was positively _giddy_ that her idea had been so popular.

It was the morning after one such Game Night that found Nathan and about twenty others standing in the main courtyard. Each person present was a powerful sorcerer, all arrayed in a semicircle behind the Ancient One, herself. Nathan, though, stood facing them all with a gigantic smile on his face. Could you blame him?

After all, everyone there besides Nathan had gone through the same ceremony. It was a bit of a big deal in their eyes.

"Nathaniel Edward Quill," The Ancient One began, "You've spent nearly seven years in our halls and have made strides in the Mystic Arts that have benefited not only yourself, but all those you associate with as well." She gestured to two of the people in the semicircle. "Two of which stand before you, here to welcome you into our highest rank."

The two she had spoken of took a step forward.

"I hereby recognize the skill and ability of Adept Quill." Isabelle stated regally, and stepped back into her previous spot with a smirk.

"I hereby recognize the skill and ability of Adept Quill." Xiang, the second person from Nathan's combat group to be elevated in rank, positively beamed at Nathan, and stepped back into his own spot. Xiang had been struggling when Nathan had first joined the group. It wasn't due to a lack of knowledge, or ability though. No, he was a bit of a loner compared to the others. In other words, the dude was just shy. Nathan had gotten fed up with it and started pranking the living shit out of him until he spoke more than three words at a time.

As it turns out, that was pretty much all he needed to start making some real friends instead of just peers. He and Nathan weren't exactly close, but Nathan was the one who introduced him to Julia, and now the man just wouldn't shut up about how awesome his girlfriend was. The twelve-year-old thought the rambling was payback for the pranks.

"Two of your colleagues have spoken highly of you, Adept Quill." The Ancient One picked back up. "What say you?"

Nathan bowed deeply. "I am greatly humbled, Master."

She smiled and turned to face the others. "Does anyone else wish to endorse Adept Quill?"

They all grumbled good naturedly and shook their heads.

Truth-be-told, nobody else needed to endorse him, they were all just there for the ceremony. Nobody really took this seriously, as the Ancient One held the only opinion that mattered in this decision, but it was important to each of them that they show their support by being present. It's what they all received when they were recognized, after all.

Turning back around, the woman continued with a smirk. "Very well. Then from this day forward, I would like to introduce the newest Master of the Mystic Arts: Master Quill." She finished with a bow.

"Master Quill." The others repeated, bowing as well.

And to finish it off, Nathan bowed back. "Thanks guys. Anyone wanna go get a burrito?"

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Guys, I did not edit this one beyond basic spelling and grammar, and I barely even did that. Normally I run back through it five or six times, but I just didn't have the time this go-round: this one's 8k words, which is nearly 3k over my usual number. Sorry for how rough the dialogue and events are.**

K'un-Lun: It's the city that the Iron Fist came from in canon, but I made up its history, and added a fuckload of dragons to it. I think we only know of a few that are from there. To be honest, I only did the bare minimum of research on that one.

The apple: I sort-of made it up. In a Dr. Strange comic, he once uses an apple to trap Baron Mordo by throwing it at him, spawning a tree in much the same way the Ancient One described in the chapter. However, to my knowledge, it was never described as an artifact in itself. It could have just been a regular apple, and Strange might have just used a spell to grow a tree out of it. In any case, I gave that apple a life here, along with some resistance to fire and energy attacks. You can thank the reader known as Joe Lawyer for reminding me that Relics exist. I had _completely_ forgotten about them. In any case, I have plans for that apple now, and most of them involve Nathan being the little shit that he is.

This chapter marks the end of the first arc. The next chapter will be Nathan leaving Kamar-Taj, but unfortunately, it's another 'learning' arc. It should only be one chapter long, though. Two at the very most, but if that's the case, I'll throw in some action. After that is another big timeskip, and pretty much _all_ action until the story's over.

Next time on _Godhood: For Dummies_ \- Fucking with Wakanda.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**

Guys, I know. I'm slow. Updates are sporadic and without pattern, It might be one a week, or one every 7 months. I lead a busy life. Not to mention I just got into Assassin's Creed Odyssey…. I'm in love, I tell you. That game's amazing. I'm an Ancient Studies major, so it just _tickles_ me.

I don't know what to say. As of this moment, this fic is on Page 1. It's sitting pretty as the 6th most followed Avenger fic out of over 46K. Also on page 1 of 'Favorites;' top 25, and that's utterly ridiculous. I started this thing like a year ago. Don't let my head get any bigger; I'll start thinking I'm a good writer, or something.

By the way, I'm still looking for cover-art for this thing. Refer to the ending A/N of Chapter 6 if you're interested/bored enough to whip up something.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

* * *

"Good morning, Master Quill."

"Please no." Nathan replied immediately. "None of that. I appreciate the ego boost, but _you_ at least,are going to keep calling me 'Nathan.'" He paused and shrugged. "The others are completely incorrigible."

All his friends from the combat group started calling him that exclusively, each with a giant grin on their face. They still called Isabelle and Xiang by name, but Nathan? Nope. Something about him being the tiniest Master in the history of the Mystic Arts, and deserving respect. It was annoying as hell, especially since they all _knew_ he was a good bit older than he appeared.

Which was probably why they did it.

The twelve-year-old was also in the middle of puberty - again - which really didn't help the teasing. A Master with a cracking voice? Apparently that's hilarious. Not to mention the little fact that his eyes were starting to draw towards his female friends while they were exercising; sweat glistening off their toned bodies, and moving around like trained danc- No.

Fucking stop it.

Isabelle in particular was _extremely_ attractive; she really had that French allure down pat, and was the first to notice his little… problem. She kept flirting with him to try and get a reaction, an action that never failed to leave him blushing - at the very least.

A few other girls around the temple had caught on and started messing with him too. Nathan couldn't say he didn't like the attention, especially since each and every one was attractive, but it was _embarrassing as hell._ It wasn't like he hadn't noticed how attractive the women were before then, but without the chemical reactions in his brain to get a boner, his interest was minimal - preferring close friends, rather than an emotional rollercoaster.

Objectively, he wasn't romantically interested in anyone he'd met in this life - his determined, dedicated personality that carried over from his past life basically tuned most romance out, or more accurately; set it to second fiddle. A trait that got him in trouble with every girl he dated back then.

Well, what do you expect? His work was just more important to him than some arbitrary relationship crap.

Who the hell celebrates 'monthiversaries'?

Nathan was a bit of a loner. Always had been; finding most relationships more cumbersome than enjoyable. That's not to say he avoided them, though. No, he enjoyed the company of every girlfriend he'd ever had, he just didn't go out of his way to find one, and if they started to chafe against his time commitments, he let them sieve out of his life.

Basically, his situation could be summed up in one sentence: hormones are a bitch.

"Very well." The Ancient One chuckled. "Though the title isn't supposed to boost your ego; merely allow others to understand your capabilities. There _are_ a few communities that practice magic around the world, not to mention a few _off_ world that we interact with occasionally." She smiled at him gently. "Kamar-Taj is the largest and most respected, but the title of 'Master' is a universal testament to one's ability among them."

That, Nathan supposed, was a good point. He hadn't run into too many problems with that, but he really only interacted with the temple students. The few other magic users he met were rogue, and doing _really_ stupid shit with the energies of the cosmos.

Which didn't facilitate much dialogue; unless you counted _punches to the face_ as a respectable conversation starter.

… Well, the Asgardians might respond well to that, but Nathan couldn't think of many others that would.

The twelve-year-old sighed. "Yeah, well that might come in handy when I leave, I guess."

"Oh?" The Ancient One tilted her head. "Had enough of us, then?"

"It's like you think I'm not coming back." He pouted. "There's a whole universe to see, though, right? I've seen some of it, but there's plenty to do that I haven't done." Nathan also had a few places to check on. Ego's seed behind that Dairy Queen, for example, was something he'd been meaning to look for. That could wait though. It's not like he would really get much from it, and if he did something with it, and somehow notified Ego of his presence… something to avoid. He just had to check if it was there, and leave.

She nodded, opening a drawer in her desk and rummaging around inside. "I suppose it's about time you started off. I imagine you want your independence back."

"You say that like I was held under lock and key." Nathan laughed, and in his best British accent said, "I 'ad a plate of fish and chips for brekfest this mornin'. On 'op a Big Ben."

Okay, yeah. His accent sucked.

"The best walls are the ones we cannot see." The lady smirked as her eyes lit up; apparently finding what she was looking for. "Ah. Here it is."

Out from the desk, she pulled a small, silver locket, and placed it in front of Nathan.

"I believe it's time I gave this back."

Nathan blinked down at the locket, mouth slightly agape.

"I…" Nathan nearly forgot the damn thing existed. "You think I can protect it?"

She nodded. "I think you can. Though more importantly: I think you might need it."

His eyes shot up to meet hers, expression turning serious.

"No. I'm not going to tell you when, why, or how. It's simply a possibility. More; I trust you to only use it as a last resort." Her own eyes hardened. "You, of all people, know how dangerous the Stones are."

Nathan stared at the locket for a moment. "You _do_ realize I'll have to practice with it if I want to use it at all, right?"

She nodded slowly. "I would imagine so, but please do it off planet if possible, or in the mirror dimension."

Nathan nodded back. "That's easy enough." Practicing with it on a barren planet, in a galaxy far, far away, was really the only option when it came to an Infinity Stone. Else risk the lives of… well, _everything._ If what he remembered about the Stones was true, though, they would shatter if taken to a different dimension, so the second option was kind of out... wait. No, Strange was able to use the stone against Dormammu, and that was in a whole other dimension, right? Maybe there was a difference between dimensions and other universes within the Multiverse? He'd been thinking they were just different terms for the same thing.

Something to look into.

Truth be told, though, he was still a bit terrified of using the Stones at all. Using his own energy as a medium was dangerous, even though it offered more control than embedding it into another device. Then there were the deity-level beings that might seek him out if he did anything of scale with it. He would have to master it before anything like that happened.

Securing the locket around his neck, the twelve-year-old looked out the window on the far wall. "Well. I suppose I'll make my rounds of goodbyes, then. Thank you." He said, turning back towards his teacher. "For everything."

She waved it off with a warm smile. "Like you said, it's not as if we won't see you again. You're welcome home anytime."

There was that word again. He really had come to belong there, hadn't he?

"Though out of curiosity," she continued, "where do you plan to go first?"

The mischievous grin sprung up before Nathan could stop it. "Oh, just a little country in Africa."

* * *

King T'Chaka was what many would call a patient man, a fair and wise ruler, a doting father, and a loving husband. Though he, himself, thought those adjectives better fit on a gravestone than the living. He preferred the more human descriptors that his wife insisted on; loyal, naïve, pacifistic, and practical.

Having a woman in one's life was good for balancing the ego, he supposed.

Through his years as King, he did his best to serve his people, and honestly had few issues doing so. His ascent to the throne had been unchallenged in the ceremony. His rise as Black Panther; even less so. Though looking back on it, a regret he lived with for the past twelve years, he dearly wished his brother had challenged him. On both accounts.

Maybe then, he could have prevented the two largest tragedies in Wakandan history. Maybe then he could have confronted the differences in philosophy before it came to a head. Maybe then, he could have come to a more peaceful resolution with his brother. Instead, he had been forced to witness an act of subterfuge and betrayal that ended more than poorly. His country's borders breached, resources stolen, citizens lost, and a brother executed for treason. The fact that the latter was carried out by his own hand only made the guilt worse, as opposed to the satisfaction that it should have been to regain that honor.

He couldn't help but think that he might have convinced his brother to keep with tradition if he had known when they were children.

Most of his people connected both tragedies as one. The execution of a traitor for giving classified information to a thief, and the resultant escapades by said thief; but T'Chaka saw differently. His brother had been dear to him. He had trusted and loved him. He was _family._

Which made the mere fact of betrayal a tragedy in its own right.

These thoughts swam through his mind on a regular basis. A regret that would never truly leave him. However, they usually sat in a distant corner of his mind, silently judging his every action. _Today_ though,they paced in the forefront. That was because today, he had a premonition of a repeat.

In his history as king, there had only ever been one man that breached the borders of Wakanda. That one man had taken much from his people, and none would soon forget it.

However now, there was another. Displayed on a large holographic screen in the corner of the room, the image of a boy was shown. A child, by the looks of it, but one that had simply walked up to the edge of his city and started poking at the illusive barrier that hid them from the world, creating ripples in the air around his finger.

"Who _is_ this boy?" His good friend and advisor, W'Badu, asked incredulously.

"He appears to be a traveler, given his hiking gear." Another of his advisors, N'Jaka, pointed out.

The boy did, in fact, wear classic, jungle-dive hiking gear. As in a wide-brimmed hat, cargo shorts and tee-shirt, boots, and a fairly large backpack with a machete strapped to it.

"That much is obvious," W'Badu responded flippantly, "but how did he avoid detection? _No one_ gets this close to Wakanda without us knowing."

"And what of his family?" The last of his advisors, and the only female in the room, Amalla, asked. "It is hard to imagine he is alone."

T'Chaka nodded at her and stood. "We will search for them. N'Jaka, please, if you would, lead that search. I will go, personally, to confront the boy and lead him away from the city. We will discuss the faults in our security later, but we must deal with this now."

"My King." N'Jaka bowed in acceptance before standing and leaving the room.

None of his advisors even twitched at the idea that their king would handle the problem personally. T'Chaka had heard of kings in Medieval times that would sit back, give orders, and _expect_ their problems to be solved without personal action. This was not how Wakanda dealt with their problems. _Wakanda_ dealt with their own problems, big or small, _personally._

"We will let him leave that easily?" W'Badu asked. "What if he speaks of what he has seen? Surely he will."

"He is a child, W'Badu. Who would believe him?" Amalla responded simply.

Their king laughed slightly. "Amalla speaks the truth. Come, my friend, let us see him away from the city before his guardians _also_ appear out of nowhere."

W'Badu sighed, but stood and followed his king out of the council room.

In just a few short minutes, T'Chaka would wish he had brought some soldiers, or even his Black Panther suit, with him, if for nothing more than peace of mind.

* * *

 **Outer Reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy**

"Hey, Marlaax! What the _dick_ is taking you so long?"

" _Pete, if you don't shut your damn blow-hole, I'm going to - oh shit, Jigg, you gotta get that thing open. Now!"_ A guttural voice hissed through the static of Peter's ship communicator.

Peter made a face at the device. "I should just leave them here." He mumbled. "Nobody would have to know."

" _I heard that, you ugly prick!"_

"Ugly?!" Peter yelled back indignantly. "I'll have you know I'm _gorgeous!_ Thank you very much!"

" _Says the idiot with strings of dead cells on his head!"_

"It's called _hair,_ you bald, overgrown tumor!"

" _Call it whatever you wan-"_

" _Would both of you shut up!"_ Another voice interrupted. _"We're kinda in the middle of something here!"_

"Whatever." Peter pouted and looked out the cockpit window. He leaned forward, trying to act nonchalant as a few figures approached the ship.

"Uh, yeah, you guys are going to need to hurry up."

" _We heard you the firs-"_ Marlaax tried to start.

"No, I mean the guards are looking at me weird, and pointing those sticks at me."

" _... Shit. Jigg, get that thing open_ yesterday _!"_

"Hey, you!" A muffled voice came from outside the ship.

Peter turned, only to see one of the yellow ape-like creatures that called this planet home, pounding on the cockpit glass.

This planet was a ship-yard. Yes; the whole planet, and went by the name of Yormunn Dock.

The Yondu Ravager clan had been chasing around the young Viscount of some weird space kingdom out in the ass-cheeks of nowhere, for nearly a month, and boy what a month of _fun_ that had been. The Ravagers had gotten a good hit on their jump-drive in their first ambush, sure, but the Space Noble had one hell of a pilot, and one _hell_ of a lot of missiles for the size of his ship.

Which basically meant they got away.

And got away.

And _frickin got away again._

'But why were they after them in the first place?' You might ask?

Well, it's simple: the Viscount had just bought a painting at an auction worth a few million units, and Yondu was fixin' to get his hands on it.

The only good thing about the situation was that the Viscount wouldn't be able to do a big jump home until he got repairs done on the ship, which meant that the Ravagers could just whittle them down through smaller, more manageable jumps.

Unfortunately, though, they didn't account for the flipping huge and well-defended repair dock that just so happened to be nearby. Which meant that once the Viscount landed, they had to get sneaky if they wanted that painting.

And Yondu _really_ wanted that painting. So _Peter_ had to get sneaky. _Peter_ had to do _Yondu's_ dirty work, and ferry a bunch of assholes around in a glorified space tricycle.

Seriously though, the ship they picked for this was a model from like… the stone-age of space travel. It had barely enough room for four people, looking vaguely like an oversized fighter jet from back on Earth. There was no seat for a copilot - which Peter didn't know why he was complaining about, none of the wiring was covered, and sparked constantly from crappily soldered connections, and the seats were _really_ uncomfortable.

 _Yondu_ picked the damn thing because it would fit in better at a repair dock, than something that just might get them out _alive._

The prick.

If you couldn't tell, the eldest Quill twin was chafing a bit under the thumb of his blue, possibly cannibalistic father-figure.

Who the hell threatens to _eat you_ if you miss behave?

Anyway, the Viscount's crew had to vacate the ship during repairs, which meant there were only a few people on board to keep the Viscount's stuff safe. Now this would be the perfect setup, if not for the literal _army_ of yellow ape creatures that guarded the shipyard. Each of which had a big metal stick.

Three of which were now pointed at Peter's space tricycle.

Peter pressed the hatch release button, and waited as the glass dome slowly rose.

… And waited.

Aaaand waited.

There we go. "Hello, my fine, furry friends. What can I do for you?"

"What do here, you?" One of the apes asked, shaking his stick a couple times.

Peter blinked. "What do… what? I don't work here."

The ape grunted in… anger? General unhappiness? "No. You here. What do?"

"Uh…"

One of the other, yellow blobs of furry muscle roared and shook his stick with both hands. "You tell what do, or I do you!"

The first ape nodded. " _We_ do you."

Peter frantically waved his hands, not exactly fancying the idea of getting run train on by a bunch of yellow gorillas. "Guys, guys, I don't know what kind of organs you have, but I do _not_ swing that way. Furry's not really my thing."

Now that just seemed to confuse them.

The one that hadn't spoken yet scratched his head. "Much word. Don't get."

" _Shit! Pete, start up the engine-"_

Peter slapped the console, trying to hit the 'off' button, while smiling sweetly at the gorillas that wanted his chastity for some reason. Now that's not to say he was _chaste_. Man's got game up the wazoo, of course.

" _The damn vault was empty. We've been played-"_

Still smiling sweetly, and mumbling between clenched teeth, "Shut up, shut up, shut up-"

" _They fucked with the wrong group of Ravagers on this side of the-"_ The click of the radio turning off was one of the sweetest sounds he'd ever heard.

"Ravagers." One of the apes grumbled and pointed at Peter. "You, thief."

"Ah shit." Peter grumbled, flipped his coat and grabbed a pair of dual blasters, quickly firing off three rounds of golden plasma, hitting each of the apes square in the face.

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit-" He mumbled to himself repeatedly as he clipped his blasters back on his belt, jumped up to hang on the handle of the cockpit hatch, and slammed it closed - not caring a bit about the gears he no-doubt broke while doing so.

Flipping a switch on the console to power up the engine, he tapped the communicator back on right as the alarms started blaring.

" _-ete! Fuck! That son of a bitch better not be dead, or I swea-"_

"Don't talk about my mother like that, you demented nipple!" Peter punched the throttle, and pulled back on the stick, just in time to blast out of the way of an incoming glob of plasma, melting the pad he had been on. He then quickly twisted the stick to the left, and pointed it a bit forward, engaging the engines to rocket his trusty ol' Space Tricycle away from a stream of turret fire.

" _Oh, good. You're alive-"_

"Yeah, and I'm fuckin' _leaving!"_ He jabbed the stick to the side, spinning into a barely controlled corkscrew.

" _What?!"_

"I'm flying for my life right now! Unless you feel like getting shot by giant yellow rage monkeys with plasma turrets, get the hell out of there and lay low! I'll pick you up later!"

" _You better get your ass back here, right the fu-"_

Punching the comms off, he flipped the ship up and into another set of aerial acrobatics to avoid more globs of plasma.

"Well, today sucks."

* * *

 **Earth - Eastern Central Africa**

"Hello, young one. Are you lost, perhaps?" T'Chaka spoke up from behind the child, who was still poking at the camouflage barrier that shrouded his city, and munching on an apple with a look of undisguised interest. T'Chaka and W'Badu had circled around the boy, not wanting to approach him from _inside_ the barrier, lest spark more… curiosity.

The child jolted slightly in surprise, and turned around to face him. "Lost?" He began, turning back to the barrier. "Maybe. I mean, I could have _sworn_ I was in a third-world country, but you guys seem to have some interesting tech here."

The Wakandan king frowned slightly. The boy was well-spoken, almost _too_ well-spoken for someone who didn't even look to be in their teens.

"Interesting? How so?"

The boy turned back to the barrier and poked it once more, sending hexagonal ripples through the illusory underbrush. "You're saying you don't see this?"

"I'm afraid I don't." The king blatantly lied. "Now what do you say about finding your parents? I imagine they're worried for you."

"That's nice." the boy replied, not even listening and taking another bite of his apple. "Hey, so do you use, like… pylons, or something to keep this up?" He paused. "Shield pylons? Are those a thing? It's sounds vaguely _'SciFi'_ enough to be a thing. Though, it also sounds like a made-up Star Trek doohickey." He wiggled his fingers.

T'Chaka frowned. The boy's mere presence at the city border was enough to shoot adrenaline through his veins, but now he was nearly to the point of vibrating in worry.

He couldn't even tell _why that was._ It was just a child in front of him. Not even close to being a threat.

"This thing has to draw a _crazy_ amount of power too... " He plucked a seed from the apple core and rubbed it between his fingers. "I know I didn't see any smoke when I was flying over, so it's not coal, right?"

T'Chaka blinked. Flying?

"Well it couldn't be coal anyway. That's _way_ too little of an output. Some combination of Solar and wind, then? Nuclear?"

"I'm afraid we don't ha-"

"Wait, don't you guys have that super metal? I suppose you could find a way to feasibly contain a reactor then. That would make sense…"

"How do you know about that?!" W'Badu interrogated, hand clenching the hilt of a small knife on his hip.

The boy blinked and turned to face the angry man with his own deadpan expression. "It was a guess." Then turned back to the barrier. "There really aren't that many power sources that could handle something like this."

"Not that!" W'Badu began, but the king held out a hand to stop whatever tirade was about to begin.

"Do you have a name, child?"

"Oh! How rude of me. My name's Nathan Quill, at your service." Nathan bowed slightly in the two's direction.

Sharing a split-second glance, T'Chaka brought a fist up to his heart and bowed slightly back, only to be followed by W'Badu half a second later.

"I am called T'Chaka, and this is my good friend, W'Badu. It is nice to meet you, young Nathan."

The boy blinked, and inclined his head. "Likewise."

"You are remarkably well-spoken for one so young. Might I ask where you're from?" The king asked amiably.

"Hard to say, but I guess you could call me American, even if I've lived most of this life out of the States."

"Ah, a traveler! Wonderful!" The king beamed. "I know quite a few places your family could visit - ah, speaking of which, you appear to have lost them? What say you if we go and find them?"

However Nathan just shook his head dismissively. "No need. I'm here alone." He turned back towards the barrier, sparking a bit of annoyance from the two adults behind him. "I must say, your country is quite beautiful, though I have to admit, I've been having a tough time finding your capital."

"Our capital is a few kilometers to the south of here-"

"Oh please, I'm not interested in that farce of a village." The boy promptly cut off the King's advisor.

A hint of steel entered the King's eyes. "Farce? I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

"I may look young, but I'm not an idiot." He scoffed. "It took me a few hours of surveying the country, but there was a little waver in the visual disruption field just above where we are." He shrugged. "Easy to spot from the air."

The two adults took a moment to just stare down at the boy in front of them, a growing dread building in both.

"And what," T'Chaka began, pressing down firmly on a black bead on his bracelet. "Do you intend to do with this information?"

Still staring at the barrier, the boy broke out into a large grin. "Oh nothing much, I'd just like to go on a tour," He turned back to the men and waved a hand behind him, " _Your Highness."_

The barrier _shattered._

* * *

Shuri was very aware of her own curious nature, however she was not even remotely inclined to temper it. A fact that caused no small amount of annoyance in her immediate family. Granted it was followed closely by their pride in her accomplishments, but she had been scolded more times than she could count. Though why wouldn't they be proud? Her tenth birthday had just passed a few months ago, and she had made no less than _three_ significant scientific discoveries in that time alone.

That's not even taking into account the number of advancements she had spear-headed in the past five years - the point where her parents finally relented, and let her have her way with the country's research department.

She wouldn't deny that she had it all handed to her on a silver platter, though. Being born the princess of a wealthy and resourceful country had its benefits, to be sure.

The girl had an innate understanding of every scientific discipline; or at least that's how it seemed to her 'tutors.' She would pick apart the textbooks - pointing out logical fallacies, she would plan mind-numbingly complex experiments, with super detailed hypotheses and exhaustive observations. She almost single-handedly rewrote science as Wakanda knew it.

In a mere _five years._

And she wasn't done yet. No, she was still learning.

She had started her journey with basic electronics; quickly moving on from that to engineering a working computer from scratch. Writing the code for it took a little more time than she might have wanted, but putting it all together was a cinch.

During that time, she had developed an interest in working physics, which soon evolved into the theoretical stage; which is when she started to look at vibranium. Many experiments later, she learned how to manipulate the energy that the mythical metal could store. She could use it as a battery, shielding, heat-sink, conductor, _and_ amplifier with little issue. All without any possibility of harmful radiation, or otherwise dangerous fallback on the user, and that's not even _counting_ the special brand of radiation that it put off by itself. It was a sturdy metal that could resist just about any type of normal force, and even some of the abnormal, yet it was still malleable in the right conditions.

She could remember the absolutely _hilarious_ faces her family made when she introduced them to Wakanda's first nuclear reactor.

It was about the size of a small car; and was in the shape of a sphere with hundreds of small cylinders sticking out of it. Inside the sphere at the center was a chunk of uranium surrounded fully with a volatile gas. Basically, a reaction would be sparked in the uranium, which would heat and pressurize the gas, turning it into a plasma. This plasma would then zap the reinforced diodes that were housed in each of the cylinders, creating a _massive_ electrical current that could be used to power the entire city.

Of course this was only possible with the complete radiation shielding that the vibranium shell provided, otherwise the whole city would have been destroyed. If not half of Africa.

She got into a good bit of trouble for that.

All that before her seventh birthday, and she didn't stop there. From then on, she dove head first into every Socratic whim. Questioned every known 'Truth,' and came to her own conclusions. She'd invented the _Kimoyo Beaded Bracelets™_ which allowed for personalized use of her own invented works, and doled them out to all of Wakanda's populace. 3D scanners, holographic interfaces and view screens, kineto-magnetic sand structures with interactive and modular uses, and even Wakada's own internal version of the internet. Currently, she was studying the effects vibranium had on biological structures, and was trying to figure out a way to use it in the medical field.

Basically, she was a genius. Maybe even _the_ genius, but that wasn't why she had been so successful. No, she was successful because she spent every waking moment in her lab, either playing with her new toys, or making new ones.

So needless to say, this was where she was when the alarms started to go off.

Quickly making her way over to a large table with a pool of black sand in the middle, she squeezed a black bead on her bracelet and waited for a short moment.

Pulsating, the sand rose up from the pool and took the shape of the capital city. All around, she could see the little black figures of the citizens running towards the designated shelters, and the warriors of each tribe quickly making their way towards the area of disturbance.

About three years ago, she had accidentally discovered vibranium's ability to _release_ massive amounts of energy. In the following months, she managed to create a method of directing this energy. Primarily, this was used in the mining operations for more vibranium, however a couple of the clans had foreseen the military might of such technology, and had it converted it into small, ranged infantry weapons. Of course Shuri wasn't exactly pleased with that, but it seemed the technology would come in useful this day.

As for the actual disturbance within the city… well, she couldn't really tell _what_ it was. There were sensors all around the city that fed into an information loop that she could pull from and create the sand-rendered model that was now at her fingertips, however there was a rather large section of the city that was… fuzzy. The sand was fizzing in the rough shape of the buildings and people, where it was perfectly rendered in other areas.

Something was confusing the sensors. Something she hadn't accounted for.

Well wasn't _that_ exciting?

Plucking a bead from her bracelet, she held it up to her ear, only for it to melt and form around the orifice: an earbud that directly connected to the same physical sensors around the city. She zoomed in on the fuzzy area of the map.

" _-re you? What do you want?"_ A male Wakandan voice asked.

" _You know, this place is pretty cool."_ A decidedly _not_ Wakandan voice stated. _"Is that a holographic projector? Awesome! Oh! What's that thing?"_

A distant explosion.

" _Hey now. That's uncalled for. I was standing there."_

" _Bamba umlilo wakho! Ungawutshisi umzi!"_ _ **("Hold your fire! Don't destroy the city!" - in Xhosa)**_

" _Wayevela phi lo mthi?"_ _ **("Where did that tree come from?")**_

" _Nceda! ndibambekile!"_ _ **("Help! I'm stuck!")**_

" _Uyabhabha?"_ _ **("Is he flying?")**_

Was there an American child rampaging through the city? OK, she was a child too, but still. Also, what was that about flying? That might be something to look into. She scribbled a note onto a holographic screen.

" _What kind of fruit is this?"_

" _Uh, I tink that passion fruit."_ Female, this time. In barely correct English.

" _Really?_ That's _what it looks like?"_

" _Uh…"_

" _Buyela apha ngoku!"_ _ **("Get back here now!")**_

" _That's fine, I like apples more anyway! Oh! Is that spear real?... Yup, it's real. Scary."_

Shuri blinked, and watched as the blurry area on the table moved around the city, and listened to the boy comment on anything and everything. If it wasn't for the army of soldiers chasing him, he would be the staple for 'annoying tourists' everywhere. He'd be their freakin' showpony.

This went on for a solid fifteen minutes before she noticed the blur getting closer to the palace. Which was where her lab was located.

Quickly, she reached for a small console on the side of the table, tapped a few buttons, and swiped up on the model of the palace on the table.

Immediately, a small blue dome surrounded the palace blocking it from the outside; preventing anyone from entering, or leaving.

However that just seemed to gather the intruder's attention.

" _Oh? What's that? Some kind of forcefield? Dang, you guys really have all the cool toys."_

" _Stop! Do not go an-fzzzzzz-"_

Static.

As soon as the blurry dome covered the palace, all of her instruments started to go haywire. All of the sand on the table promptly became inert and fell, and the speakers only put out white noise.

The ten-year-old princess just stared at the table in front of her, completely unable to comprehend whatever phenomenon was preventing her creations from working properly. They were all powered by _vibranium,_ for Bast's sake. This made them nearly immune to any type of interference. Any type of signal outside of the specific frequencies that were tailored to each device, would simply be absorbed by the mythical metal, and funneled back into the system.

It _was_ possible to overload the system of a targeted device; vibranium wasn't totally infallible, but the pure _volume_ of energy it would take to do so was so far out of feasibility that what she was currently watching was completely impossible.

Her musings must have taken a while, since she was still standing there, staring at the table when she heard the small ' _hiss_ ' of her lab's doors opening; immediately followed by a sound of excited surprise.

"Oh man! This place looks like the inside of a sci-fi spaceship! Is this a- Oh. Hello."

Shuri's head turned slowly, mechanically, toward the voice, only to see a boy not much older than herself. He was dressed in what she could only describe as 'Explorer's clothes,' and absentmindedly munching on an apple.

The boy blinked before grinning widely. "Hi! I'm Nathan. What's your name?"

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

His smile grew into a smirk. "Panther got your tongue?"

"W-what?" The bad pun seemed to knock her out of her stunned confusion. She schooled her facial expression. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The boy shrugged and took another bite of his apple. "Well, like I said; my name's Nathan. What's yours?"

She blinked. "S-Shuri." She answered cautiously. "Why are you here?"

Nathan beamed. "Why, my dear, I'm just a traveling scholar! Why does a scholar do anything?"

Was that supposed to be a rhetorical-

"To learn!" He exclaimed.

Apparently so.

Slowly, Shuri crept her hand towards a button on the table. "Learn what, exactly?" She pressed the button, only for nothing to happen.

The boy walked over to the desk she was previously occupying, taking a gander at all the splayed papers and documents.

"Well, I have a passing interest in chemistry, and I suppose that's what brought me to your _wonderful_ country," He turned his head to her with a grin, "but I've seen so many incredible things here that I can't possibly limit it to that!"

Frantically, repeatedly, hitting the same button, "Chemistry?" She asked with a calm facade. She had an idea what he meant, but hoped she was wrong.

This was only proven a second later.

"Well, _metallurgy,_ if we want to get specific. I'm a bit curious as to the properties of a particular metal that Wakanda is known to have access to."

There it was. She could feel a bead of sweat creep down the back of her neck. It was quite obvious that the boy in front of her was referring to her country's national treasure: vibranium.

"But _this!"_ He exclaimed, holding up one of the notebooks he was looking through. "This would completely revolutionize medical technology if it was true!"

"Excuse me?" She blinked again, thrown off.

"Well," he paused, scrolling his eyes across the next page before flipping back, "the power requirements and precision necessary to complete this aren't really possible, but targeted _temporary_ mutation of mitochondria to overdrive cells into repeated, forced mitosis? This would render modern first-aid obsolete!"

"W-well…" Finally taking a look at the notebook Nathan was holding up, she knew exactly which of her projects he was looking over. "T-that… requires focused radiation therapy."

He nodded. "I see that in your notes, but what is this 'Delta radiation?' I only know of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma."

"It's just," she fidgeted slightly, "something I discovered a few years ago. It's a h-highly penetrative, non-destructive radiation." Pausing slightly to collect her thoughts, she continued slowly. "Using the right techniques, it can be directed with pin-point accuracy, and used to-"

"'Energize targeted molecules, to directly rearrange DNA'" Nathan quoted from the notebook. "I see, but human cells can only go through mitosis so many times before they die completely, right? This would need to be carried out on a fairly large scale; millions of cells at the same time, so there's almost no room for error." He flipped a page. "Also what mutation are you trying to cause?"

Shuri nodded with a small excited smile, by now completely forgetting that the boy had just single-handedly broke into her country's borders and lead it's soldiers on a wild chase through the city.

Forgive her, she's ten.

Which is probably why there was a dumbfounded T'Chaka in the Black Panther suit standing in the doorway. A couple pre-teens speaking in terms better suited for people in lab-coats many times their senior, was not what he expected when he chased the boy into his daughter's lab.

"Have you heard of the Turritopsis dohrnii?"

"The jellyfish?" Nathan turned his head to the girl, who nodded back.

"It's called 'The Immortal Jellyfish.' If you take the particular piece of its DNA that allows for infinite reproduction, and 'flash' it into the mitochondria of a human cell-"

T'Chaka stopped listening, as pretty much the entire conversation was going straight over his head. Instead, he removed his mask, sighed, and just sat on a bench by the door, deciding to intervene if the boy tried anything, but still let his daughter have her moment.

Afterall, earning his daughter's ire was not the most productive thing he could do. Taking away her toys never ended well for the man.

* * *

 **A/N**

The end of this chapter hurt me. T'Chaka's reasoning for not immediately decking Nathan away from his daughter left me stuck for a while. I gave it a week to try and think something else up, but at some point I just said "Fuck it."

Sorry if it seemed half assed. It kinda was.

This little arc should be completed half-way through the next chapter. There's basically going to be a time-skip, and summing up a lot of details that happen during said skip. I've done it before, gonna do it again. Shut up, we haven't even gotten to the fun part of the story yet.

* * *

 **A/N #2 Extended Edition:**

 **Shuri (Minor spoiler):** Before you bitch at me, she's _NOT_ the romantic interest. I played around with the idea of having her be a romantic partner for a while - being much smarter than the average bear, and would probably mesh with Nathan's personality pretty well, but there is an age problem: an experience problem. It just wouldn't feel right (Creepy as fuck no matter how I swing it). So no, but that's not to say she won't develop feelings of some kind. Nathan just won't reciprocate.

 **Shattering the City Barrier:** The barrier that Nathan shattered was _not_ a defensive barrier. It was just a holographic disguise set over the city. That's not to say he wouldn't be able to shatter the defensive one, but the illusion? That one was easy - just distort the space around the affected area via magic (he sent a ripple of energy through the area), and _wham!_ Illusion shattered. If only temporarily.

 **Shuri's Nuclear reactor:** I don't have a clue how Nuclear reactors work. What I've written here is all speculation and I guarantee it would fail immediately in practice. But Vibranium. So fuck it.

 **Biology:** Again, barely have any idea how it works. I just used big words and hoped it made sense.

 **Legendary Metal explanation:** So I'm going to lay out what each of the metals in this fic are, what they're made of, and basic properties. Keep in mind that a couple of these are not 'Official.' These are just what I'm working with in this fic.

 **Element metals:**

Vibranium:

1\. We all already know about Vibranium. Absorbs energy of all kinds, super sturdy, and can put out a weird 'magical' radiation that affects the world around it.

It's frickin strange.

Anti-Metal (Antarctic Vibranium)

1\. A cashe of _special_ Vibranium found in Antarctica.

2\. This shit is weird. It vibrates itself, and breaks down molecular bonds of other metals that it touches. Still can't break Proto-Adamantium, but it's close.

3\. Black Panther's claws are made of this in the comics (and this fic - not sure if that's the case in the movies).

Uru (In this fic - We don't know much about it, officially.)

1\. Metal from the heart of a dying star.

2\. Most dense element in the universe.

3\. Most magic-attuned element in the universe.

 **Alloys:**

Orichalcum = Copper + zinc + Nickel + very small amounts of other metals.

1\. This is a 'soft' metal. It is fragile and flexible. Very similar to copper in every way physically, but is highly attuned to magic.

Adamantium: = steel + a bunch of other metals

1\. The comics never went into its composition beyond that as far as I know - I like to think it has the same makeup as Orichalcum, but with steel switched with copper.

2\. The process to make it is ridiculously complicated - using weird resins, and crap.

3\. Highly resistant to magic and mystical energies, though not immune to stronger effects.

4\. The strongest alloy that can be made using common metals.

Wolverine's Bones: Adamantium (Beta) = Pretty much the same as above.

1\. (Beta means that it was altered by human anatomy: slightly weaker than normal Adamantium, which is why an Adamantium bullet can pierce his skull. It's the same as normal Adamantium outside of that.)

Cap's shield: Proto-Adamantium = Adamantium + Vibranium

1\. Basically just standard Adamantium but adding Vibranium into the mix. Somehow.

2\. Most resistant metal that exists. It straight-up resists _everything. Period._ You need universe-breaking powers just to scratch it.

3\. The version in the movies is **just** Vibranium. The version in the comics (and this fic) is Proto-Adamantium.

Thanos' gauntlet: Adamantine = Gold + Zinc + Vibranium + very small amounts of other metals.

1\. We don't really know the makeup of Adamantine, but this is what I'm going with.

2\. We don't know (officially) what the Gauntlet is made of either, but Adamantine is the only gold-colored legendary alloy in any of the comics that I know of.

3\. Reflects magic and Psychic attacks. To the point of total immunity.

4\. We also don't really know how strong it is, but it's pretty much right around where normal Adamantium is - if not a bit stronger.

5\. There's a version of Wolverine that has bones made of this, and he's pretty cool.

I have plans for another 'unofficial' alloy, but I won't get into that here; these are just all of the 'official' metals - Besides Orichalcum, which is my own addition.

* * *

 **A/N #3**

I got an idea for a 'continuation' of this story once it's finished… well, I might actually start writing it anyway because it sounds fun (I've already started planning the first one). Basically, Nathan might up and decide to start traveling the Multiverse in earnest once all problems are solved in this one. The idea is that he starts traveling to other fandoms, starting with Mass Effect. One fandom per story; each one fleshed out as a story of its own. However the 'growth' of Nathan will not really be there. He'll be dropping in with his full (sort-of) set of Godly powers that he'll have at the end of _this_ story, and we'll jump straight into the plot of the universes he enters. Odds are it'll focus on humor, rather than drama, or full adventure.

Thoughts? Not sure about the reception on this idea, but I _know_ I'll have fun writing it. If you like the idea, I'd like suggestions on fandoms to jump into, but know that I'll be starting with Mass Effect… most likely. Star Wars is on the list already. Suggestions I'll use must have a scientific mindset behind them. Meaning that I won't just be explaining things away as _magic,_ or have Nathan jump into worlds like Dragon Ball Z, or Fairy Tale. DBZ is a two trick pony and wouldn't mesh right. Maybe for a short story, but it'd be a crack fic. Fairy Tale has many more tricks, but it doesn't mesh with Marvel _at all_ on a fundamental level, and I'd have to do way too much work to _get_ it to work. Stuff like Harry Potter, and The Witcher would be difficult, but I might be able to get them to work. I'm a little tired of Naruto, so that one's out for a while at least.

You get the picture.

* * *

 **A/N #4 The Usual:**

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual **constructive criticism** , I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please **review**! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.


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